Small Businesses Dealing with Crime (Houston, Dallas: apartment complexes, rent, crime rates)

[austin-saca]

We would like to hear from other small businesses dealing with crime on a regular basis in Austin. What have you experienced? How have you handled it? Have you gotten any assistance? Have you considered leaving Austin?

[opalminor]

What kind of crime, specifically?

[austin-saca]

Our area, 78704, is experiencing high property crime. Last year, this area had 2,728 thefts. That's 72% of all crime in this zip code. It is the second highest number of thefts for Austin zip codes.

[CptnRn]

Austin does have an unusually high property crime rate. Most of which are thefts, crimes of opportunity. For a small business that probably means shop lifting. Much of which can be deterred by the layout of your store, making sure the owner and clerks have good visual access to what the shoppers are doing. Narrow aisles packed full of stuff on tall shelves, and inattentive clerks is an invitation to shop lifters.

I find it hard to believe that 2,728 thefts in 78704 would be enough to make many businesses move out of town. That is about 7.5 a day and many of those are probably thefts from cars and apartment complexes. You can look up the actual crime statistics at the City GIS web page for the last year to see where and what type of crimes occurred in that zip code. Most crimes in any zip code occur mostly around stores, restaurants and apartment complexes.

[austin-saca]

This is a light industrial neighborhood. Crime is happening at night. Any theft is a problem for the businesses that are experiencing it, especially when the losses are repeated and large, as our neighborhood is experiencing.

[Dr.Mom]

Originally Posted by austin-saca

This is a light industrial neighborhood. Crime is happening at night. Any theft is a problem for the businesses that are experiencing it, especially when the losses are repeated and large, as our neighborhood is experiencing.

If you're in an industrial complex with other businesses experiencing the same problems could you ask the police to increase patrols in the area? If that's not possible, what about hiring a private security firm? The expense could be shared by all of the businesses in the complex. Do you rent or own your space? If you rent, I'm sure that your landlord would chip in for security if s/he knew you were thinking about relocation due to crime.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by austin-saca

This is a light industrial neighborhood. Crime is happening at night. Any theft is a problem for the businesses that are experiencing it, especially when the losses are repeated and large, as our neighborhood is experiencing.

If they are breaking into locked buildings or a fenced secure area, then it is classified as a burglary, if they are taking stuff that does not belong to them and it is not in a secure area then it is theft. Most theft is a crime of opportunity, people leave valuables laying around where they are easy to take, that is just stupid. If the burglary losses are large, then you need better security.

The highest neighborhoods for burglary are:

78741 - 846
78745 - 816
78704 - 692
78753 - 668
78758 - 604

http://malford.ci.austin.tx.us/police/zipcode/zipcode/indx_nindx_zip_1209.pdf (broken link)

Crime rates/ 100,000 people: Compared to other large cities, Austin is very high in theft, second place. But Austin's Burglary rate is about average, 9th place out of 20 cities. Here is a sampling...

New York 254 Lowest
El Paso 349
LA 507
Chigago 876
Austin 1,120
Fort Worth 1,334
Houston 1,339
Dallas 1,814
Detroit 2,046
Memphis 2,183 Highest

Crime in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Given that Austin's burglary rate is about average, I don't see much incentive to move your business.

[austin-saca]

@Dr. Mom - APD is working to get resources for more patrols.

@Capt - We hope that you never experience a theft - or a burglary.

[AusParent]

What's the incentive to deal with so much crime?

[capcat]

We have a small business in an industrial area that has a fairly high crime
rate. We have an alarm system to the building, of course, but I believe added something (motion detector) to the fenced area in back. It's a pain when it goes off due to wind, etc., but it's worked (knock on wood). Before that, we would have things go unexplainably missing from the back, and it has a very tall chain-link fence.

In a less crime-prone area, we had a trailer stolen that was locked and parked in back of the shop. We parked its replacement inside.

I've read of unpreventable crimes recently, though. Things like stealing copper from a/c units. As long as copper brings a good price and people don't want to work for a living, I guess that's what happens.