Some Lubbock Crimes Rising; Mayor Calls for More Officers
By: Nick Ochsner
Updated: February 25, 2013
Certain types of crime are on the rise in the City of Lubbock, according to an analysis of Lubbock crime data conducted by the KAMC Investigates team.
The team decided to dig into the past five year's worth of crime after a string of murders, home invasions and other crimes at the end of 2012.
All law enforcement agencies in the State of Texas are required to submit certain crime data to state and federal authorities each year.
For this story, KAMC Investigates look at DPS crime statistics for the City of Lubbock between 2009-2011 and pulled preliminary crime numbers from the first six months of 2012 and tallied the instances of crimes for the last six months of 2012 using raw data provided by the Lubbock Police Department.
Our analysis found an increase in burglaries, rapes and auto theft in the five year span starting in 2009.
Robberies increased by eight percent, rapes by seven percent, and auto theft soared 33%.
The murder rate stayed roughly average, between eight and thirteen murders each year.
Only aggravated assaults decreased.
Mayor Glen Robertson attributed the increases to two things: Lubbock's steadily growing population and an often-ignored drug problem.
"We've got a serious issue in this town with drugs," Robertson said. "I think its an issue we don't like to admit we have, and I think when you have a serious drug problem in your community it bleeds over into all crime rates."
Although Robertson pointed out 10-year data ending in 2012 that showed a decrease in all types of measured crimes on a per-capita basis, he said hiring more police officers could help shrink the crime numbers.
"We're about 45 police officers short of the national average," Robertson pointed out. The national average in two officers for every 1,000 people.
Robertson said he would like to see the City Council allocate more money to the Police Department in the coming year's budget in order to recruit more officers.
The team decided to dig into the past five year's worth of crime after a string of murders, home invasions and other crimes at the end of 2012.
All law enforcement agencies in the State of Texas are required to submit certain crime data to state and federal authorities each year.
For this story, KAMC Investigates look at DPS crime statistics for the City of Lubbock between 2009-2011 and pulled preliminary crime numbers from the first six months of 2012 and tallied the instances of crimes for the last six months of 2012 using raw data provided by the Lubbock Police Department.
Our analysis found an increase in burglaries, rapes and auto theft in the five year span starting in 2009.
Robberies increased by eight percent, rapes by seven percent, and auto theft soared 33%.
The murder rate stayed roughly average, between eight and thirteen murders each year.
Only aggravated assaults decreased.
Mayor Glen Robertson attributed the increases to two things: Lubbock's steadily growing population and an often-ignored drug problem.
"We've got a serious issue in this town with drugs," Robertson said. "I think its an issue we don't like to admit we have, and I think when you have a serious drug problem in your community it bleeds over into all crime rates."
Although Robertson pointed out 10-year data ending in 2012 that showed a decrease in all types of measured crimes on a per-capita basis, he said hiring more police officers could help shrink the crime numbers.
"We're about 45 police officers short of the national average," Robertson pointed out. The national average in two officers for every 1,000 people.
Robertson said he would like to see the City Council allocate more money to the Police Department in the coming year's budget in order to recruit more officers.
