HOUSTON – Houston Police Chief Troy Finner and HPD commanders provided a quarterly update on violent crime to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and members of the Houston City Council Wednesday.
Among the topics covered were updates on violent crime statistics, technology upgrades, recruitment and retention, gang prevention and youth programs.
According to Finner, the overall violent crime rate is down by 12% and overall crime is down by 6%. Unofficially, the city has recorded 111 murders in the first four months of the year, compared to 153 in the first four months of 2022.
“It takes us all to reduce crime and that’s what you see happening in our city,” Finner said.
Crimes have decreased in the following categories:
- Homicides: 27% lower
- Human trafficking: 23% lower
- Kidnappings: 19% lower
- Aggravated assaults: 12% lower
- Robberies: 10% lower
- Rapes: 6% lower
- Thefts: 10% lower
- Non-violent crimes: 5% lower
However, property crimes and auto thefts are up 14% and burglaries increased by 2%.
“When I look at the stats and I look at each district, each councilmember, overall crime is down and that is to be commended,” Finner said. “This is just the first quarter. And I ask that we continue to get support from everybody around this room and also our citizens. We still have to make smart decisions. We still have to help our neighbors out. Summer is coming.”
The city experienced an increase in violent crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Factors that contributed to a spike in violent crime nationally include widespread social anxiety, economic uncertainty, mental health concerns, an increased presence of illegally owned firearms, and a “strained” court system dealing with criminal case backlogs that impact the pretrial, release, and prosecution of violent offenders, HPD said.
In 2021, the city launched a violent crime initiative that resulted in the reduction of crime in many identified “hot spots.” By the end of the initiative, all violent crime categories were reduced, except homicide. HPD later launched the ‘One Safe Houston’ crime reduction initiative.
“I would say ‘One Safe Houston’ is working and it’s now been in effect for more than one year and the numbers are reflective, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Mayor Turner said.
Finner thanked the mayor for his contributions to ‘One Safe Houston,’ including the overtime funding of 125 additional officers per day, enhanced use of technology and specialized trained personnel that respond to domestic violence and mental health calls.
“I want to thank the residents of our city and the great work of our men and women in uniform, as well as our support staff. I also want to thank the collaborative effort that we have with our local, state, and federal partners,” Finner said.
The initiative focuses on four key areas:
- Violence reduction and crime prevention
- Crisis intervention, response recovery
- Youth outreach opportunities
- Key community partnerships
Finner’s PowerPoint presentation, including crime numbers through March in each city council district, is available here.