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A professional organization of police leaders published a report on Thursday, which shows that the City of Houston experienced a drop in violent crime last year, per Houston National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate Houston Public Media (HPM).
HPM reported that the Houston Police Department (HPD) joined 69 other U.S. law enforcement agencies in taking the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) survey and was one of seven to register declines in all four categories of violent crime.
The survey indicates that homicides and other violent offenses in Houston, the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the U.S. with a population of nearly 2.3 million, fell about 10% from 2021 to 2022, which its authors say is a sharper year-over-year decline than the rest of the country, HPM reported.
Aside from murders, HPD responded to fewer rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults. The other six were Dallas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Oakland, California; St. Louis County, Missouri; Tucson, Arizona; and Wichita, Kansas.
According to the MCCA, Houston police fielded a total of 26,223 violent crime reports in 2022, a 9.9% plummet from the 2021 total of 28,825, per HPM.
The report adds the three cities bigger than Houston – New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago – each saw jumps in violent crimes.
Houston Daily reported last month that while preliminary data revealed a decline in violent crimes, property crimes throughout Houston rose last year, with auto theft crimes among the most reported.
HPD is pleased with the 2022 data but feels there’s more room for improvement.
"The overall data shows HPD's crime-fighting efforts are working, but there's still more work to be done," a department-issued press release said, HPM reported.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a release of its own published late last month that it arrested over 100 violent offenders, as well as confiscated more than 60 weapons.