Houston's Violent Crime Rate Down 10.4 Percent, Chief Says

HOUSTON — Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Mayor Sylvester Turner released the crime statistics of for 2018, which indicates instances of violence crime dropped significantly last year.

"We saw a 10.4 percent decrease in violence crime, which is huge," Acevedo said during a press conference on Monday.

Robberies were down for the fourth consecutive year with a 10.1 percent decrease, or 1,000 few robbery victims. Rapes were down 5.5. percent, while aggravated assaults were down 11.3 percent.

While its good news as a whole for Houston, there is room for improvement. Those same statistics that noted a drop overall in violent crime, noted an increase in homicide with 10 additional murders committed in Houston.

"If there is one homicide, it's one homicide too many," Turner said. "Certainly we'd love to get that number down to zero. That's the goal. If there is one child killed, that's one child too many..."

Acevedo said the drivers for the increase in homicides in Houston were related to either gang violence or family violence.

Homicides related to domestic violence were up 38 percent, Acevedo said.

As for the non-violent crimes, such as burglaries and auto theft, were also down. Burglaries dipped 7.7 percent in 2018 and thefts dropped 2.4 percent.

While violent and non-violent crime are a priority, so are crimes related to drunk driving and traffic enforcement.

In recent months, Houston has been ground zero when it comes to horrific alcohol-related fatalities, and in several cases the Harris County District Attorney's office has filed charges against bars for over serving those patrons, or in at least one case, charged the convenience store clerk for selling alcohol to a minor.

"We have made an absolute conscientious effort to go after these drunk drivers," Acevedo said.

Last year, 5,125 people were arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated in Houston. Despite those high numbers, there was a double-digit reduction in traffic fatalities, Acevedo said.

Turner, who drew comparisons between Houston and Chicago, said Houstonians are taking an active role in keep their city safer than some larger metropolitan areas

"When we have 5,200 police officers covering 640 square miles, and Chicago has 12,000 plus police officers covering 275 square miles, the men and women in blue are doing an outstanding job and Houstonians are stepping up and they are reporting crimes," Turner said. "When they are seeing something, they are saying something. It's a collective effort."

(For more news and information like this, subscribe to Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Image: City of Houston

Send your news tips and story ideas to bryan.kirk@patch.com