DPS data: Crime rate falls in state, edges up in city

[Lodge2004]

Interesting numbers. Wish they would break out the murder number so you could understand it better, i.e. 75% were related to the drug trade or gangs.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4791100.html

AUSTIN — Overall crime rates fell in Texas last year, although Houston's rose slightly, marked by a spike in the number of homicides, state records indicate. The city's overall crime rate rose 0.6 percent between 2005 and 2006.

Houston recorded 377 homicides last year, 13 percent more than in 2005 and the highest number since 1996, when 261 homicides were reported. Houston's homicide rate, 18 per 100,000 people last year, was also the highest in a decade.

HPD spokesman Victor Senties said his department needed to review the data before Police Chief Harold Hurtt would comment.

Pearland, Baytown and League City also saw increases in crime. The sharpest local increase was in Pearland, with a spike of 15.3 percent in the overall crime rate. The crime rate rose 11.5 percent in League City.

But crime took a dip statewide last year, reflecting a four-year decline.

There were 1,385 homicides across Texas last year, 20 fewer than in 2005, a 3.3 percent drop. Reported rapes fell 3.8 percent between 2005 and 2006, to 8,407.

The state's overall crime rate fell 5.3 percent between 2005 and 2006, though robbery rose 1.3 percent, to more than 37,000 reported incidents. The state's violent crime rate fell 2.3 percent.

DPS director Col. Thomas A. Davis, Jr., attributed the lower crime statistics "to the efforts of our citizens and the law enforcement community."

Raymond Teske, a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University, attributed the drop in statewide crime rates to tougher prison sentences.

"We've been holding the core criminals in prison much longer and they account for the majority of crime," he said.

The influx of retirees and middle-class professionals, not your typical crime-prone population, also accounts for the dip, Teske said.

The DPS data was collected from 99 percent of the state's law enforcement agencies.

There were 247 reported hate crimes in 2006. Race-based hate crimes accounted for half of the overall reports, with ethnic and anti-gay bias each accounting for another 19 percent.

Vandalism accounted for nearly a third of all reported hate crimes, followed by simple assaults, at 26 percent.

Women were nearly five times as likely as men to be the victim of domestic violence. More than 186,000 domestic violence incidents were reported around the state in 2006, a 0.5 percent decline over 2005 figures. Homicide and non-negligent manslaughter accounted for 0.1 percent of domestic violent cases.

More than $2 billion in property was reported stolen in 2006. About $697 million, or 34 percent, was recovered by law enforcement.

And, the numbers revealed one fact you wouldn't guess from prime-time police dramas: You can get away with murder.

Authorities in Texas made an arrest in 72 percent of the homicides committed last year and 75 percent the year before, leaving about a fourth unsolved.

Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Crowe and Express-News researcher Julie Domel contributed to this report

[NcongruNt]

Wow, that makes Houston responsible for over 1/4 of the murders in the entire state. And I thought it was just the air, water, traffic, and scenery that kept me away.

I wonder what the murder rate in Austin is. One of Austin's murders last year was on the same block as my house. Premeditated murder with dismembering afterwards. Pretty gruesome stuff.

[frankie_the_yankee]

Wow, that makes Houston responsible for over 1/4 of the murders in the entire state. And I thought it was just the air, water, traffic, and scenery that kept me away.

I wonder what the murder rate in Austin is. One of Austin's murders last year was on the same block as my house. Premeditated murder with dismembering afterwards. Pretty gruesome stuff.

Austin is a lot lower. Usually, there are around 25 - 30 homicides per year out of around 600K people. So that's around 5 per 100K.

Austin is a very low crime area compared with most other cities of similar size.

Boston, MA - a gun-grabber's "Mecca" with roughly the same number of people - has almost 3 times as many homicides as Austin.

I'm not saying it's the guns that make the difference. But for whatever reasons, down here we really DO have "More Guns, Less Crime".

A lot less.

[portsider44]

wonder how much of Houston's problem was a result of the large influx of Katrina folks??

You know New Orleans have never been known for there low murder rates & with a lot of those folks relocated to Houston???

[seamusTX]

wonder how much of Houston's problem was a result of the large influx of Katrina folks??

It's likely that all of the increase was a result of the people from New Orleans and their friction with existing gangs.

I have to say in their defense that most of the people from New Orleans have been peaceable, and some of them have become innocent victims of crime. Much of the violence is between gang members, or domestic.

- Jim

[KBCraig]

Wow, that makes Houston responsible for over 1/4 of the murders in the entire state.

If they're talking about the metro area, Houston has almost 1/4 of the population of the entire state.