Total crime reported in the city of Missouri City decreased nearly 19 percent from 2016 to 2017, Police Chief Mike Berezin reported to City Council Monday.



The city tracks and categorizes offenses into part I and part II crimes, Berezin said. Part I crimes the city tracks include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft.

Overall the city experienced a 21 percent decrease in part I crimes from 2016 to 2017, according to the city’s annual police report. Within the same time period, the city also saw a 16 percent decrease in part II crimes, which include offenses such as embezzlement, simple assault, forgery, drug violations, curfew, fraud and disorderly conduct.

“[The crime rate is] the lowest it’s been in five years,” Berezin said.

While most types of crime, including burglary, robbery and murder, have seen downward trends from 2016 to 2017, cases of aggravated assault saw an increase of 21 percent, Berezin said.

“That’s the area we’re going to focus on to try to get those numbers down,” he said. “I will tell you in Missouri City, the most pervasive crimes we have are property crimes.”

The police department’s average response time for emergency calls was estimated to be 4 minutes and 48 seconds, according to the report.

“We’re going to strive to get it below 3 minutes,” Berezin said.

Some challenges the department faces in meeting such a response-time goal includes personnel shortages, high traffic volume and mobility issues, he said.

“Another category that’s often tracked by police departments is the clearance rate,” he said. “In other words, after a crime is committed, how successful are you at clearing the crime and giving someone closure—solving that crime.”

In 2017, the city saw a clearance rate of 23 percent, which was higher than the state average of 19 percent, according to reported data. The police department is striving to increase that rate, Berezin said.

Several council members expressed support and approval for the police department.

“It’s great to see how far we’re coming with such [few] people,” Council Member Anthony Maroulis said. “We do more with less—it’s impressive.”

Berezin said the city supports a philosophy of “see something, say something” to improve overall public safety, and residents may report unusual or suspicious activities using the department’s non-emergency phone number: 281-403-8700. If it is an emergency, residents should call 911.

“The officers aren’t paid to look for crime,” Berezin said. “I know that’s a shock to most people, but they’re paid to look for the uncommon and the unusual, and the uncommon and the unusual often means criminal activity is afoot.”