Turner urges residents to 'be aware of their surroundings' as murder stats spike

With crime increasing in the City of Houston, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is urging residents to be more mindful of their surroundings and their safety.

That includes wherever they may be, Turner said in a June 14 Twitter post.

"While you are out shopping, eating or going to the bank, please be aware of your surroundings and this is especially true at night," Turner said in his Twitter post. "Try not to be on phone when approaching your home."

Earlier this month, ABC 13 reported 202 homicides in the city by June 11 of this year, compared to 148 by that time last year.

Other violent crimes included a drive-by shooting at a Washington Avenue bar that injured five people, Yahoo! News reported, and a League City man shot and killed after a night out, The Daily News reported.

Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter were up in Houston almost 16% by the end of April this year, according to Houston Police Department's latest monthly operational summary issued for that month. The summary reported 132 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters by the end of April, compared to 114 reported in the same period last year.

Aggravated assaults went up more than 7% in that time period, 5,971 reported by the end of April this year, compared to the 5,565 reported during the same period last year.

Weapon law violation shot up almost 55% by the end of April this year, 1,231 reported this year compared to the 796 instances reported during the same period last year. Animal cruelty reports were up almost 66%, 179 instances this year compared to 108 reports by the end of April last year, according to the summary.

The summary also included some good news. ATM fraud was down almost 59%, pickpocketing was down almost 10% and simple assaults were down by about 7%.

Examining crime data in Houston is not very cut and dry and must be done carefully as the city is a couple of years into a new way to track crime reporting states. In 2019, the city transitioned from Uniformed Crime Reporting (UCR) to National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS), part of a national shift in crime data and reporting methods.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo cautioned at the time that while NIBRS provides a clearer picture of overall crime in the city and is more transparent than UCR, the transition did increase the number from crime reporting categories from eight to 52 crime types.

How the crimes were counted changed as well. For example, a crime such as a murder that involved a robbery with narcotics counted evidence would have been one crime under UCR but is counted as multiple crimes under NIBRS.

The Houston Police Department also provides a number of ways for residents to remain mindful of their surroundings and crime in their neighborhoods. These include a monthly crime data map and a community crime map, as well as a monthly beat and boundary report.