Did you feel safer last year?
In line with a national trend, San Antonio’s murder rate dropped from 2017 to 2018, according to a review of preliminary police data by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Alamo City’s homicides declined 14.3 percent — from 124 in 2017 to 106 last year. That mirrors a decline of nearly 6 percent across the nation’s 30 largest cities, according to the study.
The trend also reverses a national uptick in murder rates between 2015 and 2016. San Antonio also experienced a similar uptick.
According to the Brennan Center stats, both Chicago and Baltimore, whose episodes of deadly violence garnered media headlines, actually experienced murder-rate declines from 2017 to 2018. Chicago dropped by 18.2 percent, while Baltimore fell by 7.9 percent.
On the other hand, there was bad news for three other Texas cities, which bucked the trend and recorded homicide increases — Austin by 24.7 percent, El Paso by 100 percent and Houston by 24.7 percent.
The FBI is expected to release official crime statistics including murder rates by city in September.
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This article appears in Jan 2-15, 2019.
