Study: Crime No Longer Top Concern For Houstonians
New Polling Follows Years Of Declines in Local Violent Crime Rate
A poll released last week by the University of Houston reveals a stunning downturn in the number of Houstonians citing crime as a top concern. According to the study, electricity service reliability, rising taxes, housing affordability, and flooding are now the primary issues worrying voters. In fact, crime has slipped below the “condition of roads and streets” on the list of concerns.
Zoom Out: This dramatic shift in public opinion coincides with a wide array of data confirming declines in violent crime both locally and nationally.
Just yesterday, Harris County Sheriff Chief Mike Lee posted news on X corroborating significant decreases in murders, robberies, aggravated assaults and more across Harris County.
A report issued from AH Datalytics in April revealed a massive, 25% drop in homicides in Houston. HPD has announced decreases in both violent and non violent crime. Additionally, FBI data shows violent crime in Houston has trended downward since 2020.
Doug Griffith, President of the Houston Police Union - and someone who isn’t exactly known for calming concerns about crime - confirmed these trends as well:
“I believe that the crime rate reduction is two fold. First, the Officers from each of the respective departments in and around Houston, have been working very hard to bring down violent crime. There has been a slight uptick in Burglary of Motor vehicles, but most other crime is starting to slow down. The second reason is the judges. After the large push to get the liberal judges like Greg Glass and Franklin Binum out of officer, the courts have started to take crime more seriously. I believe that we have shined such a spot light on the activist judges that the others have taken notice and started doing their jobs. We see higher bonds, and more people going to trial than in this year then the last four combined. Violent Offenders are now being tried and sentenced to prison, where they belong. Knowing that 10% of individuals commit 90 % of the crime, we can target that 10% and put theme where they belong, behind bars.”
But, But, But: Not everyone believes these trends are real. Griffith is at odds with local TV reporter Randy Wallace, who produces the controversial “Breaking Bond” crime-scare series for Fox 26. Wallace - without evidence - pushed back against the findings:
“I question the validity of the crime stats I believe crime remains one of the top concerns for Houstonians.”
We’ve asked Dr. Michael Adams - one of the authors of the study - for his response to Wallace and will update this post if we get one.
Why it matters: There appears to be a growing divide between Houstonians and police who are seeing for themselves an improvement in public safety and the outdated crime-scare driven editorial choices being made by local TV reporters, deep-pocketed political action committees supporting Republican candidates, and tough-on-crime politicians like Mayor Whitmire, who recently said he did not feel safe at a Kroger in River Oaks. Will Houston-area journalists cover decreases in crime as ardently as they did when trends were moving in the other direction? Will they call out public officials and politicians who politicize heinous crimes and crime survivors?