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Crime clearance in county higher than state
Published October 28, 2008
It’s hard to make crime statistic comparisons between area cities because of their differing sizes and populations, but all five Brazoria County cities with populations between 10,000 and 30,000 do have something in common.
No one of those five leads in all seven of the state’s indexed crime categories, but all are above the state average in crime clearance, according to 2007 Texas Department of Public Safety data released in September.
Some information was incorrect in a crime statistic story in Monday’s Facts.
Alvin, Angleton, Clute, Freeport and Lake Jackson all post positive numbers as compared to state crime clearance, Lake Jackson Police Chief Paul Hromadka said.
Comparing the cities themselves is a challenge since most share common shoppers, common criminals and common goals, he said.
“You have to take into consideration the population of cities,” Hromadka said. “You also have to consider makeup of our cities, shopping areas and the number of people coming in and out of each city on a daily basis.
“There are differences in crime rates and incidents, but overall, southern Brazoria County is a safe place to live,” Hromadka said.
Statewide, 57 percent of homicides, 40 percent of rapes, 34 percent of robberies, 59 percent of assaults, 11 percent of burglaries, 20 percent of larcenies and 18 percent of auto thefts were cleared.
Brazoria County cities are ahead of Texas across the board with the only exception being Clute’s clearance of larceny, which is at 20 percent. A crime is considered cleared when someone has been arrested or the suspect has been identified and sufficient information exists for prosecution but the victim refuses to prosecute.
“The report is good for all our cities,” Hromadka said. “We work together to keep incidents low in the area.”
Departments keep records on the seven crimes and report them to the Department of Public Safety each year, department Uniform Crime Reporting statistician Lori Kirk said. Last year’s numbers show one homicide in each Alvin, Freeport and Lake Jackson with all three cleared by arrest — the Lake Jackson arrest in January 2008.
Angleton reported the most rapes and assaults among Brazoria County cities with populations between 10,000 and 30,000 while Lake Jackson had the most larceny and robberies, Freeport the highest number of burglaries and Clute the most car thefts.
At a population of almost 28,000, Lake Jackson has about 10,000 more residents than Angleton and is more than double the size of Freeport. Lake Jackson is almost triple the size of Clute, City Manager Bill Yenne said. And many of the larceny cases — theft of property including shoplifting and burglary or a motor vehicle — are due to the number of shops in Lake Jackson as compared to other smaller cities, Hromadka said.
“We’re high in larceny theft because of our businesses districts,” he said.
Lake Jackson solved 63 percent of larceny cases and half of robberies, according to the state’s uniform crime reports. Lake Jackson solved 100 percent of all assaults, Hromadka said.
Freeport’s 176 burglaries led Brazosport-area crimes with police there solving 29 percent of those crimes. There will be fewer reported in 2008, but “crimes of opportunity” — goods left in plain sight — are one reason for the high 2007 number, Police Chief Jeff Pynes said.
“The question ‘why’ is crime high in a certain category is hard to answer,” Pynes said. “We’ve been trying to educate the public to secure their valuables by keeping things out of sight, locking their cars, that kind of thing. Freeport is safer now than it was in 2002, and we have seen a remarkable decrease in burglaries.”
Eighty-nine percent of Angleton’s 61 assaults were solved, according to state numbers. The police department erroneously reported their number of rapes at 27 when there were 12, Angleton records clerk Paula Bowman said.
“We do get a lot of assaults,” Bowman said. “We have a very high rate of family violence.”
Clute had the highest number of auto thefts at 52, solving 72 percent of those. Alvin did not lead in any crime categories but is second in robberies at 17, larceny at 546 and rape with eight cases.
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