City sees major drop in violent crime
Homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault cases fall 9%
Houston experienced a nearly double-digit decrease in violent crime in 2022, and new data released Thursday showed the city was the largest major metropolitan area in the country to report a drop in the most serious offenses.
By percentage, the decrease in homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults in Houston was among the largest dips in the country, mirroring a trend playing out in most other major U.S. cities in 2022, according to data by the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
The Houston Police Department reported 26,223 cases of four types of violent crimes in 2022, down from 28,825 cases the year before, according to the group. Overall, there was 9 percent year-over-year drop.
Los Angeles, New York and Chicago all reported increases of between 0.7 and 14.7 percent, according to the data, which included crime information from 70 departments across the country.
The chiefs association is a nonprofit organization made up of law enforcement leaders from the largest cities in the U.S. and Canada. The Salt Lake Citybased group conducts research, crafts policy and serves as a lobbying organization.
The association’s data was in line with a report delivered to the Houston City Council by Police Chief Troy Finner earlier this month.
Finner told City Council that violent crimes decreased in 2022 but that violent crime rates were still above levels reported before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonviolent property crimes, such as car thefts, increased in 2022, Finner said.
The chief said he was proud of the work done to decrease crime rates in 2022, especially after a rash of violent crimes occurred early in the year.
“We still have work to do, and we’re going to continue to move forward,” Finner said.
The association didn’t include crime data from before 2021.
HPD on Thursday didn’t respond to a request for comment about the association’s statistics, in part because top officials were dealing with an officer-involved shooting and lockdown at a high school in west Houston.
While Houston did report fewer murders in 2022, its 435 homicides — down from 477 in 2021 — were the fourth most among the cities that provided data to the association. The Chicago Police Department reported 697 homicides in 2022, and Philadelphia police reported 516 homicides. The New York Police Department reported 438 homicides, just three more than Houston, despite having a population nearly four times larger than the Bayou City.
Houston reported the fifthmost rapes, the fourth-most robberies and the fourth-most aggravated assaults among large cities.
According to the association, San Antonio reported more violent crime than any other city except New York, and had the most reported violent crime per capita, with 26 reports of violent crime for every 1,000 residents. San Antonio reported a 43 percent increase in homicides, from 161 in 2021 to 231 in 2022, according to the association.
San Antonio’s homicides count included 53 migrants, who in June were found dead in semitrailer after being abandoned by alleged human smugglers on the side of highway. The migrants, who were from Mexico and Central America, died of heat stroke and exhaustion, officials said.
San Antonio, Austin and El Paso were the only Texas cities to report increased rates of violent crimes. Both Austin and El Paso reported drops in homicides, but increases in aggravated assaults. Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington reported overall decreases in violent crimes, according to the association.
Among cities included in the report, El Paso records one of the lowest per capita crime rates, with just 3 violent crimes reported for every 1,000 residents, according to the association’s data.