SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Police Department's crime battle is a 24-hour, 365-day, never-ending cycle.
A surge in criminal offenses has raised the stakes and statistics over the past four years. Hope for a decline in a possible five-year trend may be growing dimmer as shootings and other incidents will push the numbers up.
KENS 5 requested the violent crime statistics from each SAPD substation. The department has six more commonly called patrols: Central, North, Prue, East, West, and South.
The escalation can be seen in the numbers from January 2017 through July 2022.
KENS 5 shares the results from two substations shown each day on KENS 5 This Morning. Today, it's Prue and East Patrols.
According to SAPD records, Prue patrol had the lowest overall crime in San Antonio last year. But that does not mean the distinction came without an impact from a rise in violent incidents.
Aggravated Assaults rose each year from 2017 to 2022. That's 128 cases to 369. This July, police were at 250 investigations and rising.
Family violence over the same period went from 1,770 incidents to 2,550. There were 1,625 in July.
From 2017- 2019, Assaults went up too. The instances decreased in 2020, only to rebound in 2021.
Sexual assaults on Prue Patrol were the second highest in the city last year at 368 cases, and that's second to Central patrol with 505 incidents in the same period.
Murder is rising on Prue as well. There were six deadly encounters in 2017, 14 the following year, 12 the next two years, and 17 in 2021. By July 2022, police had investigated 12 murders.
Deadly conduct cases were at a four-year high. Robberies dipped slightly last year.
"There is crime all across the country and all across San Antonio," Rose Hill said. "We're not going to neglect the fact that there is crime on the east side. It's everywhere."
Hill is the president of the Government Hill Alliance Neighborhood Association. She believes crimes are going down on San Antonio's east side. It's an area strapped with a reputation for violence, and homeowners who fight to get outsiders to see the east side is as livable as anywhere else in town.
"We have the highest crime rate. You know, it's always negative," she said. "I can tell you right now that a lot of the president's District 2---we work very hard in our neighborhoods."
Robberies are now the lowest in this police district since 2017. But every other violent category is up.
Deadly conduct cases rose to 616 cases in 2020 and carried the exact number last year, and it was four hundred nine instances going into August this year.
There were 203 sexual assaults on record in 2017 on East. The number increased to 264 last year---as of July 2021, 151 cases.
East patrol had more murders last year than any of the substations in San Antonio: 47. That is more than North and Central Patrol combined for 2022 at 36 homicides.
Hill acknowledges the murders and can attest to one not far from where she lived. But she isn't moving and not giving up on her community.
"If you're going to come into our community and you're going to create a crime, we're going to be watching you," She said. "We are watchdogs in all our neighborhoods. And we're making sure that our children, our neighbors, and our seniors are safe. That's our responsibility."