SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio has seen several high-profile murders in recent months, including a chaotic scene at Market Square during Fiesta and the shooting of a grandmother as she was visiting from out of town for a graduation.
The cases could feel like they're representative of a more dangerous community. But a new report is suggesting the opposite, saying violent crime was down in San Antonio over the first half of this year compared to the same time frame last year—including homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assault incidents.
The study, compiled by the Major Cities Chiefs Association and released this month, shared trends for 69 major U.S. cities and found that just 15 of them reported more murders from January through June of this year compared to January to June of 2023.
None of those 15 cities seeing more murder in 2024 are in Texas, though Arlington police did investigate more aggravated assaults while Houston – the state's biggest city – contended with a larger number of rape cases. San Antonio, meanwhile, experienced a 27% drop in murder cases, from 86 last year to 63 this year.
That accounts for the largest drop among the five biggest Texas cities.
It's also reflective of national numbers. According to the report, police in those 69 U.S. communities are investigating 17% fewer murders in 2024. The biggest Canadian cities, meanwhile, reported jumps in murder and robbery cases.
The Justice Department said the news was the fruit of new collaborations between federal and local law enforcement to drive down violent crime.
"We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners across the country to arrest violent felons, seize and trace guns used in crimes, disrupt violent drug trafficking, and make critical investments in police departments to hire more officers," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
SAPD officials themselves said this spring that they were responding to less violent crime, attributing it to an ongoing crime reduction partnership with UTSA. Those numbers, however, compared 2023 to 2022, when the partnership began.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association survey found rapes dropped from 511 to 447 in the first half of this year in San Antonio; robberies from 915 to 856; and aggravated assaults from 3,727 to 2,974. Of Texas' biggest cities, only Austin saw a bigger drop in overall violent crime (28%) than San Antonio's 17%.
Local officials have said, however, that property crimes have trended up over the last year.
