Houston's Crime Rate Continues to Decline

April 21, 2011 - Houston's crime statistics for the first quarter of 2011 indicate the city's crime rates have continued to decrease, building on the momentum that began in 2010. Building on last year's success of lower violent and nonviolent crime stats, total crime - in UCR Part One violent and nonviolent categories - has decreased by 14.2% compared to the first three months of last year.

Violent crime has decreased 9.9 percent compared to the same period a year ago, with murders down 33.3 percent and robberies down 25.8 percent. Nonviolent crimes have decreased 14 percent, with a 15.3 percent drop in auto thefts.

There were slight increases from January through March, of 4.1 percent in aggravated assaults and 1.8 percent in rapes compared to the same period in 2010.

"I have to highlight the tremendous job that our patrol officers, investigators and support staff have done in reducing crime in the city," said HPD Chief Charles A. McClelland, Jr. "We know that we don't control all the factors when it comes to crime, but the factors that we do control; we did a very good job. And one of the things that helped us with that is our 24/7 Crime Center," Chief McClelland added. "The Crime Center has been instrumental in relaying crime trends and hot spots to patrol stations in order to deploy officers in the most strategic and efficient manner."

In breaking down thefts in the city, burglaries of motor vehicles (BMVs) are down 16.58 percent for the first quarter. BMVs are the most preventable crime, which indicates that the citizens of Houston have received the crime prevention message to lock their vehicles and to remove and hide valuables.

In addition, burglaries of residences are also down 14.3 percent citywide. This can be attributed to increased patrol presence in neighborhoods and citizens taking precautions protecting their homes.

"We have worked hard over the past year to educate the citizens of Houston on crime prevention, to use technology as a force multiplier and increase patrols in the areas where they are needed most. Our hard work, with the eyes and ears of our citizens, is paying off with safer streets and neighborhoods in Houston," added Chief McClelland.

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