Everyone knows that the population of Bell County — including its most populous city, Killeen — are growing; however, does this growth account for the increase in violent crime that residents are experiencing?
When the Killeen Police Department posted its first crime data report, for July of 2020, the city’s population stood at 151,666. In its most recent report, for January of 2022, Killeen’s population has ballooned to 157,632, a percent increase of nearly 4%.
At the same time, departmental data show that the violent crime rate per 100,000 people increased more than 15%, from 49.48 in January of 2021 to 57.10 last month. Violent crimes include homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Property crimes also have increased in the city during the same time period, from 112.29 per 100,000, people in January 2021 to 135.76 this January, which is a percent-increase of nearly 21%, according to information on KPD’s department transparency page. Property crimes include burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, and theft or larceny.
KPD Police Chief Charles Kimble recently told another media outlet that crime in the city is “relatively small” when the population increase is taken into account.
“A lot of them are concerned about (Killeen’s reputation as a high-crime city) but, the good thing is that given the size of the city of Killeen, the crime is relatively small,” said Kimble in a KXXV story on Feb. 16.
The department did not answer the Herald’s questions regarding the police chief’s statements to KXXV, an ABC affiliate based in Waco.
Transparency efforts
In September of 2020, KPD increased its efforts at transparency by creating a “Department Transparency” tab on its website. There, residents can access crime statistics, department demographics, policies and internal affairs information. The department’s intelligence unit compiles the data that breaks crime into four categories: violent crime, property crime, calls for service and traffic incidents.
“By sharing this information, we want to engage the community to improve policing services and solve problems,” said Ofelia Miramontez, KPD spokeswoman, in an email on Saturday to questions sent by the Herald. “The department wants to make this information accessible to the community and easy for them to understand. It gives them a better insight and understanding about our commonly discussed policies, crime statistics, internal affairs and agency demographics.”
Also available on the department’s transparency tab is the number of vacancies within the department. As of Jan. 31, the department has 18 vacancies among sworn officer positions and 16 among authorized full-time civilian positions.
As of the end of last month, KPD employed 242 sworn peace officers.
Violent crime increases nationally
Killeen is not alone in experiencing an increase in violent crime; it’s a trend that is being seen nationwide, according to the FBI’s most recent “Crime in the U.S.” report, which was released on Sept. 27, 2021. The annual report is a compilation of data from law enforcement agencies that participate in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) or National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
The FBI has not yet released its annual crime report for 2021.
The report for 2020 reveals that nationwide, the estimated number of violent crimes increased 5.6% when compared to 2019. In the same time period, property crime numbers decreased almost 8%.
Data from the FBI show that KPD reported 583 violent crimes in 2019, while in 2020, 1,033 violent crimes occurred. There was an overall decrease in Killeen property crimes, from 3,432 in 2019, to 2,937 last year, according to FBI data.
According to KPD data, 78 violent crimes were reported in January 2021. This January, 90 violent crimes have been recorded.
Residents can access KPD’s transparency page at www.killeentexas.gov/558/Department-Transparency.
