HOUSTON – Earlier this year, the mayor of Houston announced an initiative to reduce violent crime.
Now, the homicide count in the city of Houston is trending lower.
While there is plenty to be done to curb crime in Houston, city leaders updated the public that the initiatives appear to begin to be working, as the city increases patrol, and overtime pay for police and focuses on violent crime prevention.
This time last year, there were 192 homicides.
To date, as of Tuesday, the year 2022 has a count of 187 homicides, which is down 3%.
The city launched the One Safe Houston program in early 2022, resulting in the reduction of crime in many of the city’s crime-ridden hotspots, except for the city’s homicide count.
At least, that was the case for the first three months of this year. However, as of May 31, there was a change. To date, the city of Houston’s homicide count saw its first 3% drop.
The mayor said the plans are very intentional on driving that number down even more.
“I’m not here at all to say it’s a mission accomplished. I’m not here to say that. What I am here to say is that with this initiative, it is working, it is effective, it’s having an impact,” Turner said.
Bianca Smith, a mother in the Sunnyside neighborhood, said that safety is a top concern.
“We have to pray before we leave home because we never know what situation we might get in going to the grocery store, taking the children on an outing,” Smith said.
Leitha Steen said she is happy about the progress and wants to see it continue.
“I think that’s awesome. I think any improvement is better than no improvement. At least he’s taking the initiative and recognizing the problem so that it can be corrected,” Steen said.
The One Safe Houston program uses federal COVID relief money and Houston police data to beef up patrols in crime hot spots around the city.