City of Houston
According to HPD, the latest crime analysis for last year shows overall violent crime was down 8% and the murder rate was down 9% compared to 2021. There were 435 murders last year, compared to 477 the year before.
Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media
Violent crime in Houston was a hot topic for most of last year, including on the campaign trail for candidates in November’s election. The Houston Police Department presented their 2022 crime analysis to city council members on Wednesday. The detailed summary report highlighted violent crime across Houston decreased for 2022 throughout all council districts.
According to HPD, the latest crime analysis for last year shows overall violent crime was down 8% and the murder rate was down 9% compared to 2021. There were 435 murders last year, compared to 477 the year before. The report also showed a decrease in other violent crime categories with robberies down by 9%, aggravated assaults down by 8%, and sexual assaults down by 18%.
"At the beginning of the year, we had a rough year in 2022, but One Safe Houston then came in and we got on top of that, just to make sure we clarify the effectiveness of One Safe Houston," said Mayor Sylvester Turner.
Houston, just like other major cities, saw an increase in crime after the pandemic and started last year with a significant spike in violent crimes. Last year, violent crime numbers were much higher at the beginning of the year which prompted Mayor Turner to create his $55 million One Safe Houston crime Initiative, to tackle violent crime in the city.
Police Chief Troy Finner says Houston has made progress, but crime numbers can be better.
"I am eternally grateful and extremely proud of what we have done and there's still work to be done," he said.
Although violent crime rates have decreased, the city saw an 11% increase in property crimes because of more thefts involving catalytic converters and firearms. HPD said there were a total 15,645 cases of theft of vehicle parts in 2022 which includes catalytic converters. In 2022, 4,140 guns were stolen from vehicles compared to 3,700 in 2021.
"That’s up 2,000 from the previous year," said Assistant Chief of Police Wyatt Martin. "And we were already dealing with catalytic converter theft in the previous year, so that is driving our theft numbers, that’s heavily driving our non-violent crime numbers."
The report also stated in 2022, for the fifth consecutive year, HPD officers and investigators arrested more than 21,000 individuals charged with felony offenses, totaling more than 105,000 arrests. More information on HPD's crime analysis can be found here.
