Finner, alongside Assistant Chief of Police Wyatt Martin, presented statistics on crime to Houston City Council members at a May 3 meeting.
By the numbers:
- Murder is down 27%.
- Rape is down 6%.
- Robbery is down 10%.
- Aggravated assault is down 12%.
- Kidnapping is down 19%.
- Human trafficking is down 23%.
- Violent crime is down 12%.
"My goal ... is to continue to drive those numbers down," Finner said at the meeting.
Did you know?:
- The Houston Police Department has 5,100 officers.
- The city is offering a $10,000 signing bonus for new officers, a bonus that was approved by Houston City Council in 2022.
- May 1-5 is Police Week in the city of Houston.
- At 7 p.m. May 5, a memorial service will take place at the Houston Police Officers Memorial site at 2400 Memorial Drive, Houston. The service will include a candlelit vigil, a 21-gun salute and a Houston Police Department helicopter flyover for Houston police officers who have died in the line of duty.
In January, Finner and Martin shared preliminary end-of-year crime statistics for 2022 with council members. In that report, police leaders noted auto theft increased in 2022; it remains high for the first quarter of 2023 with an increase of 14%.
Burglary throughout the city also increased by 2% for the first quarter of 2023, as did auto theft and rape in District H, which covers parts of the Heights and North Houston.
