Austin officials say crime is on the decline throughout the city

The rising murder rate has been a concern, but other crimes are not happening in Austin as often anymore.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin city officials say crime is on the decline. "Overall our crime numbers are down citywide," said Austin Police Chief Joseph Chacon.

However, these crimes that are decreasing in frequency are in particular categories like theft.

"We've seen decreases in both violent crime and property crime this year. That doesn't discount the fact that we have a record number of murders or aggravated assault numbers are up," said Chacon.

"We know we are doing something right," said Austin Mayor Steve Adler.

The rising murder rate has been a concern. But other crimes are not happening as often anymore.

"The number of murders happening in Austin is obviously a real concern. The murder rate is going up in cities all across the country. Cities that added a lot more police officers and in cities that didn’t. There is something else going on, perhaps the pandemic, maybe it’s the difficult political climate," said Adler.

Are the City of Austin's efforts to house the homeless working?

A recent report by the Downtown Austin Alliance shows the number of unsheltered homeless in a large stretch of downtown dropped by 55% between May and October.

This news comes after the Downtown Austin Alliance released a report saying the city's homeless population downtown, in particular, decreased by 55 percent from May through October.

What is driving this? Does the homeless population shift have anything to do with it?

"I haven’t heard of any direct correlation between those two things. I know what is driving crime in our city is not generally homelessness. There are a lot of other factors we are seeing in our city," said Adler.

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