Crime is down, but it’s still an issue on campaign trail
Violent and nonviolent crimes are down across Houston compared to 2022, Police Chief Troy Finner told City Council on Wednesday.
From Jan. 1 to Oct.15, violent crime dropped almost 10% compared to the same period a year prior, according to Finner’s presentation. Nonviolent crime is down by 4%.
Finner highlighted that murders are down by some 18% from the year before. Of the 288 murders reported in the first nine and a half months of 2023, 85% were committed using firearms. There have been an additional 591 nonfatal shootings in the city this year.
“Too many guns are in the wrong hands of people in our city,” said Finner.
Year after year, 3,500 guns are stolen from cars in Houston on average, Finner said. He urged residents to put firearms in safes and praised council members for distributing gun safes across the city.
Finner also mentioned an increase in federal prosecution of gang-related violence. Finner said, with the help of five federal prosecutors, their operations have “totally disrupted” three to four major gangs. They have prosecuted more than 75 cases, seized 110 guns and seized a variety of tools used to make fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fentanyl overdose deaths are increasing rapidly across the U.S. Most deaths are linked to illegally-made forms of the drug.
However, crime has not dropped in every category. Auto thefts have increased by 15% since last year, and rape reports have increased by just under 2%.
Many residents have raised concerns with police response time, but Councilmember Abbie Kamin said Wednesday that poor police response time might be a “misnomer.” Finner said Houston is doing as good as, if not better, than most major U.S. cities, specifically when responding to calls related to life-threatening situations.
Despite the crime rate reduction of 5% overall, there have still been 101,131 violent and nonviolent crimes reported in the past nine and a half months. For many in the city, that number is too high.
In a recent University of Houston poll, almost half of voters listed crime as their top concern in the mayoral election. The poll also asked voters their perspectives on solutions to reduce crime.
According to the poll, 62% strongly support hiring 600 new police officers, 57% support bettering police relationships with minority communities and 56% support allocating $25 million for additional mental health resources.
The disparity between the number of people who are concerned with crime and a decrease in crime overall may have more to do with perception than statistics.
On the campaign trail, mayoral and City Council candidates have addressed crime as a priority.
“We cannot say that downtown is safe,” mayoral candidate Lee Kaplan said at a forum. “The Chronicle has incorrectly reported that crime is down by focusing on change from a pandemic to the present. But if you consider 2019 to 2022, you know the murders in the city are up, and people don’t feel safe.”
“We have a crime issue in Houston,” mayoral candidate state Sen. John Whitmire said at the same forum. “People come up to me in a Heights senior center saying we don’t leave the house after 5. Young families will not go to the park in the evening. … We do not have to live like that.”
“The most important issue affecting everyone in District G is crime,” said Tony Buzbee, candidate for that district, in a recent video posted on social media. “Four years ago to today, people are concerned about crime.”
But some city officials took issue with this emphasis on high crime rates. Robert Gallegos, District E council member and mayoral candidate, said he is frustrated with the way crime is spoken about in the election cycle.
“That affects the morality of HPD officers,” said Gallegos. “What they don’t need to hear is a candidate saying that crime is rampant across the city, a candidate saying that we don’t do anything. … It’s very disheartening.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner also spoke about his frustration with public safety’s perception.
“It’s unfortunate that when the numbers are trending in the right direction people don’t highlight what’s happening in those trends,” Turner said. “These are signs that we are trending in the right direction and getting back to where we were in 2019.”