Each year, the Austin Police Department releases a report on crime statistics, which is then passed on to the Federal Bureau of Investigations for a more comprehensive report later in the year. According to the most recent APD numbers, general crime across Austin rose in 2018.
In general, Austin saw an 8-percent spike in crime last year. The annual report looks at subsections of crime, too, including violent crime and property crime.
In terms of violent crime, Austin did see a slight decline. The report shows a decrease of 8-percent, or, roughly 382 crimes per 100,000 residents. But even that appears to be a mixed bag. When broken down even further, APD notes that the murder rate actually rose from 25 in 2017 to 32 in 2018, yet the rate of crimes such as aggravated assaults dropped by 14-percent — a 10-year low.
Rape and sexual assault saw a 6-percent decline, but those numbers are likely heavily impacted by a State of Texas audit of APD’s sexual assault investigations.
Property crime remains a major problem for Austin. In 2018, the rate rose by 8-percent across the city, or, 3458 per 100,000 residents.
The rate of burglaries was also up by 4-percent, and general thefts was up by 8-percent. Of all of the reported thefts in 2018, 41-percent were vehicle burglaries.
When it comes to the number of cases solved or cleared, they are down, too: 40-percent of violent crimes in 2018, down from 46-percent in 2017, and 10-percent of property crimes, down from 11-percent in 2017.
