McManus praises efforts to cut major crimes
Police Chief William McManus highlighted the department’s ongoing efforts to combat crime in San Antonio, three years after homicides and violent crime spiked.
Major crimes decreased by 16 percent last year compared with 2017, the second consecutive annual decline, McManus told the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
McManus said the decrease — first reported in February — can be credited to the ongoing efforts of the Violent Crime Task Force, a consortium of local, state and federal agencies established in 2017 to address the spike in violent crime.
“Our officers are out there 24/7,” McManus said. “They are arresting people more than we ever have before. We are fighting to keep those numbers down.”
Since its inception, the task force reported it has made 22,805 arrests — including 2,119 gang members — executed 8,201 warrants, recovered 2,953 firearms and seized more than 1 million grams of drugs.
McManus said the decrease
in crime can also be chalked up to the work of the Community Engagement Team, which contacts people in high-crime areas in an effort to avert criminal activity.
In 2018, its first full year, the unit contacted 115 people considered at “high risk” of illegal activity. The officers also attended 33 community meetings and made contact with 75 victims, McManus said.
“They go to crime scenes, they go to areas where there has been violence occurring, and they’ll talk to people on the street, trying to get them to understand that they don’t need to stay in this type of life,” McManus said. “They talk to victim and victims’ families to let them know what kind of services are available to them.”
His briefing comes weeks ahead of the release of national data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, which tracks eight major offenses considered most serious — homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/ theft, motor vehicle theft and arson.
McManus also briefed City Council on a study by the city’s Office of Innovation that found 67 percent of crimes in the last 10 years were committed by people with a criminal record .
McManus said he has long suspected that crime is connected to so-called risky behavior, such as gang involvement and drug dealing. He said the report reinforces that premise.
“If you’re on your way to work every day, picking up your kids from school, going to the grocery store, your chances of becoming a victim of crime is very slim,” he said.
Given the report’s conclusions, McManus said he looks forward to working with Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger, who oversees policies aimed at improving public health, on prevention of violent activity.
“We want to look at it from a public health perspective, as well,” McManus said. “What services can we provide to make sure people don’t become perpetrators or victims of violent crime?”