Playing It Safe
According to the latest FBI crime statistics, El Paso and Austin rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, among the cities with the lowest murder rates in the nation.
By Robert Bryce, Fri., Jan. 21, 2000
It would be difficult to imagine two more different cities. One is a hardscrabble border town with a flourishing drug trade, high unemployment, and low per capita income. The other is a gleaming capital city with a zooming high-tech sector, lots of newly minted millionaires, and minuscule unemployment. And yet the two cities, El Paso and Austin, are leading the nation when it comes to safe streets. According to the latest FBI crime statistics (from the first six months of 1999), El Paso has the lowest murder rate of any major U.S. city. Austin ranked second. El Paso's murder rate was .013 per 1,000 residents; Austin's was .014 per 1,000. The two cities also ranked among the top five safest cities in robbery statistics. (See chart.)
Police in the two cities credit much of the drop in crime to better economic conditions. Both cities are booming and both have seen their populations surge by about 20% over the past decade. But a vibrant economy is only part of the picture. Police in the two cities have employed similar crime-fighting techniques. Both have used specially trained groups of officers to concentrate on gang-related crime. The units have been so effective, in fact, that neither city recorded a single gang-related murder in 1999.
In addition, the two cities have been remarkably effective in tracking down murderers. Last year, the Austin police did not have a single unsolved murder case. El Paso police indicted or gained convictions on more than 90% of the murders in their city.
While Austin has long enjoyed a relatively low crime rate, El Paso has not always been so lucky. As recently as 1993, the city recorded 47 murders in a single year. In 1999, it had just 14. And although El Pasoans are pleased with their new recognition as a low-crime city, residents have had to contend with the lurid tales of serial murder and mass graves that have emerged in recent months from their sister city across the Rio Grande, Ciudad Juarez. In December, law enforcement officials began searching for as many as 100 bodies believed to be buried on the outskirts of town by factions competing for the city's lucrative drug trade. Nine bodies were eventually uncovered. In addition, the Mexican city of 1.3 million is still reeling from the effects of a six-year-long murder spree during which more than 200 women were killed.
Sergeant Al Velarde, a spokesman for the El Paso Police Department, says the drop in crime in his city, particularly when compared with the problems in Juarez, is "pretty amazing." Velarde said El Paso's ports are a favored entry point for drug smugglers. In addition, the city's relatively low per capita income and high unemployment rate should translate into a high crime rate. But that hasn't happened. Velarde credits the willingness of citizens "to get involved in different aspects of policing," including a willingness to testify in court, as a primary reason for the drop in crime.
Commander Gary Olfers of the Austin Police Department said the preliminary 1999 murder rate statistics will be revised upward because the city experienced a rash of killings in October. The city ended the year with 25 homicides. Nevertheless, Olfers said that the city's murder rate has been steadily declining, mostly a matter of riding "the coattails of the downward crime spiral around the nation." Olfers also credited the city's community policing and gang suppression programs. Whether the credit is due to a good economy or good policing, El Paso and Austin are clearly doing several things right.
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