'This is a can-do city': Houston leaders introduce 38th annual March on Crime

Houston's 38th March of Crime initiative will focus on road rage, domestic violence, homicides, shootings, theft of firearms from vehicles and other facets of crime troubling Texas's largest and the U.S.'s fourth-largest city, city leaders said.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner revealed the topics for the citywide crime prevention campaign at a press conference earlier today, according to Houston ABC affiliate KTRK.

March on Crime, which dates back to 1984, is held in March and educates and informs citizens about crime trends in the city. 

Previous programs have touched on juvenile crime, neighborhood watch and personal safety, KTRK reported.

"This is a can-do city," Turner said, according to the station. "We are resilient and we will get through this together. I know there is not a better police force anywhere than the one that is right here in the City of Houston."

Turner said March on Crime and the newly launched One Safe Houston are implemented on the notion fighting crime isn't just the responsibility of law enforcement but the community as a whole.

The previous year or so bore witness to an increase in crime in the country's largest cities, including Houston.

Almost 40 years after the first March on Crime, Houston finds itself in a similar situation. 

March on Crime came into existence three years after 1981, which was the city's deadliest in terms of murders committed with over 700.

In 2021, the Houston Daily reported, Houston tallied 473 homicides, with this year apparently showing no signs of a decline.

Eighty-six murders have been reported so far in 2022 as of Feb. 28.

Finner; however, asserts there's no need for the public to panic.

"The sky has not fallen," the chief said, KTRK reported. "We have good people. We have good police officers. If we come together, we'll get it together. We're moving forward."