Burglaries in Austin (Howe: crime, neighborhood, to live in)

[saca-austin]

There are people in our community who will take from others because they can.

Tuesday night, one of our employees worked late to make ends meet. He found that someone broke into his vehicle, stealing a number of items. The following night, he worked late again, heard a loud noise, and found someone trying to kick in the door of a neighboring small business.

Our neighborhood had a cycle of crime about this time last year. Austin City Council refused to help. Lt. Pedraza and his team stepped up to the plate and the crime abated. But APD warned us that crime flows toward the path of least resistance. Now it is back in our neighborhood.

We have again contacted Lt. Pedraza. By the way, Lt. Pedraza is running for Constable, Pct. 4. We will post our progress.

[chuck_steak]

We live in a very nice neighborhood and a car got broke into last night on our street. Also, there have been house burglaries going on for the past year. I think it has to do with the economy.

[Venusian_Artist]

I think the issue is that other Texas cities, like Houston and Dallas, have suburbs with virtually no serious property crime (ie. The Woodlands, North Spring, Colleyville, Grapevine--okay, there was an honor killing there at Christmas time, but a clear outlier.)

Austin has Westlake, and there are still burglaries, and you're not going to find any affordable housing there anyway. Whereas, in the aforementioned communities, you can.

So it's not just the economy. It's more that Austin is the "Berkeley" of Texas, complete with an extra dose of transiency. Too bad, because the hill country rocks!

[sajae90]

Originally Posted by mickey65

Some of those burglars are taking quite a chance with breaking into people's homes here in Texas and not knowing that ONE house they end up in, they have a shotgun leveled at them...

LOL, what you speak is so true. When I was living in Austin, I lived alone (single female) at the time. I didn't bother anyone and was really quiet. I lived in a fairly decent safe area that was quiet and surrounded by churches, a park and a school. At around, 9:00 p.m (it was pitch black outside), I heard someone scrambling at my door. I stooped in a corner with a gun, LOADED and ready to fire. The person then yelled out, "MAINTENANCE!". Like I am suppose to believe a maintenance person is coming to my specific apartment so late in the night. If he was truly the maintenance guy, he would of had a key, and wouldn't have been scrambling at the door for five minutes straight! (This happened around Christmas time btw).

All I can say is, if he would have broken into my apartment that night, he was going to get an early Christmas gift.

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by jr1038

It's definitely not the whole story. For example, Oklahoma City has probably 1/5 of the "illegal" population of Austin, but has property crime rates every bit as high if not higher. However, Austin's violent crime rate is much lower than Oklahoma City's.

Austin crime statistics report an overall upward trend in crime based on data from 11 years with violent crime increasing and property crime increasing. Based on this trend, the crime rate in Austin for 2012 is expected to be higher than in 2009.

The city violent crime rate for Austin in 2009 was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - national violent crime rate average by 21.86% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - national violent crime rate average by 106.12%.

In 2009 the city violent crime rate in Austin was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - violent crime rate in Texas by 6.59% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - property crime rate in Texas by 55.84%.

__________________________________________________ __________


Oklahoma City crime statistics report an overall downward trend in crime based on data from 11 years with violent crime increasing and property crime decreasing. Based on this trend, the crime rate in Oklahoma City for 2012 is expected to be lower than in 2009. Rapidly since illegal alien laws were enacted.

The city violent crime rate for Oklahoma City in 2009 was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - national violent crime rate average by 116.62% and the city property crime rate in Oklahoma City was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - national property crime rate average by 101.58%.

In 2009 the city violent crime rate in Oklahoma City was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - violent crime rate in Oklahoma by 85.66% and the city property crime rate in Oklahoma City was higher than the Moderator cut: competitor site - property crime rate in Oklahoma by 71.25%.


Oklahoma’s shifting demographics are perhaps most evident in its public school system, where the anchor baby population has more than doubled over the last 10 years. In 1997, about 4.5 percent of the state’s public school students were anchor babies. In 2007, that had increased to about 10 percent of the student population.

[chuck_steak]

I don't think it has anything to do with anchor babies, it's the economy. Obviously millions and millions of people without jobs has to have something to do with it.

[BentBow]

Originally Posted by BentBow

Austin is a illegal alien sanctuary city. The crime follows.

Many illegals work in the construction fields. The bad ones scope out their targets as they work all over Austin. They learn Gate codes and even alarm codes as they are allowed to work all over in the Austin area, in consumers homes. Heck, even Rick Perry has had illegals work in his home in West Austin, indirectly.

Look at crime rates in sanctuary cities compared to staunch conservative anti-illegal alien cities. You will find your answer to the problem.

Originally Posted by sxrckr

That could be part of it, but I'm not sure that's the whole story.

Originally Posted by Bo

Normally it's off topic to discuss illegal immigration in local forums. Since this reference is local and integral to an on-topic answer, I'm making an exception here.

This exception does not include debating whether Austin is a sanctuary city (that's a thread hijack, discuss that tangent in its own thread) or the concept of sanctuary cities or whether illegal immigration is good or bad. An on-topic reply can accept or reject the reference at face value. Don't try to drag the thread into a NON-LOCAL direction that is off-topic for the forum.

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Nice theory, but it does not pan out. The zip codes in Austin with the highest numbers of burglaries and thefts are pretty much the same as those with the highest violent crime rates.

ZipCode..... # robbery / burglary / theft
78741..... 187 / 847 / 2662 .....E.Riverside Drive
78745..... 51 / 763 / 2246 .......S. Central Austin S of Ben White Blvd.
78753..... 147 / 739 / 3238 ......IH-35 corridor N of 183, E. Runburg Ln.
78758..... 125 / 710 / 1743 ......N. Central - Runburg Ln.
78704..... 79 / 667 / 2512 ........South central Austin

Compare those to Circle C
78739.....1 /28 / 128

Austin Crime Statistics 2010 http://malford.ci.austin.tx.us/police/zipcode/zipcode/indx_nindx_zip_1210.pdf (broken link)

I would agree that the most successful burglars probably go to affluent neighborhoods to steal. But apparently most burglars are not all that smart.

CptnRN, that was perfect, to make my point.

41, 53 & 58, are highly concentrated with illegal aliens, that are not suppose to be here in the first place. 45 and 04, has the overflow.

[homeinatx]

Originally Posted by BentBow

CptnRN, that was perfect, to make my point.

41, 53 & 58, are highly concentrated with illegal aliens, that are not suppose to be here in the first place. 45 and 04, has the overflow.

It should be "who" not "that". "Who" is the pronoun for people - "that" is the pronoun for things. Learn the difference.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by BentBow

Austin crime statistics report an overall upward trend in crime based on data from 11 years with violent crime increasing and property crime increasing. Based on this trend, the crime rate in Austin for 2012 is expected to be higher than in 2009.

The city violent crime rate for Austin in 2009 was higher than the national violent crime rate average by 21.86% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the national property crime rate average by 106.12%.

In 2009 the city violent crime rate in Austin was higher than the violent crime rate in Texas by 6.59% and the city property crime rate in Austin was higher than the property crime rate in Texas by 55.84%.

It is not surprising that the number of crimes committed are increasing as the population increases in one of the fastest growing cities in the US. It is however misleading to compare the crime rate of a large City to the State crime rate or the National crime rate, as both of those are averages for the entire state, and nation, including all of the rural areas where crime rates are almost always much lower. The crime rates for Cities are almost always higher then those for State averages or National averages

It is more useful to compare Austin to other Cities of a similar size. United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comparing Austin to about 73 other Cities with populations over 250,000;

Austin has:

• 14th lowest Violent Crime rate
• 7th highest Property Crime rate

Breaking Property Crimes down, Austin has:

• 28th highest Burglary rate
• 3rd highest Larceny-Theft rate

Austin is extremely low in Vehicle Theft and Arson, so it is largely the Larceny-Theft rate that is the biggest problem in Austin.

Having studied the Austin crime statistics in detail in the past I found that the vast majority of the Burglaries were burglaries of vehicles, not houses. So petty burglaries, petty theft and larceny are the majority of the crimes in Austin.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by BentBow

CptnRN, that was perfect, to make my point.

41, 53 & 58, are highly concentrated with illegal aliens, that are not suppose to be here in the first place. 45 and 04, has the overflow.

I've seen no evidence that the majority of crimes are committed by illegal aliens. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that illegal aliens are less likely to commit crimes because the punishment for them is so much more severe then it is for citizens.