KILLEEN, Texas — The Killeen Police Department released the first part of its 2019 uniform crime report Friday, which indicated crime went up by three percent from 2018.
The initial numbers include violent and non-violent crimes. A graph provided by KPD detailed the different kinds of crimes including vehicle theft, larceny, burglary, aggravated assault, robbery, rape and murder.
Burglary, robbery and rape were shown to have decreased from 2018 to 2019.
Meanwhile, the graph showed an increase in larceny, aggravated assault, vehicle theft and murder.
The number of murders in Killeen rose from seven to 16. The number of aggravated assaults went up by 33 incidents. Larceny also went up by 63 incidents and vehicle thefts went up by 69 incidents.
The number of vehicle thefts was the biggest contributing factor to the overall three percent increase in crime, the department reported.
“We continue to encourage citizens to practice basic crime prevention techniques, unfortunately many citizens still leave their keys in their cars, leave them unlocked as well as leaving valuables in plain view,” Killeen Police Chief Charles Kimble said. “We look forward to continuing our partnerships to make 2020 a safer year.”
The release showed that current data available does not include the population increase or decrease for Killeen, so it doesn’t reflect crime rates in the city.
A second graph comparing the estimated population and crime in Killeen depicts the three percent increase in crime next to a larger percentage of population growth.
The same graph indicated that the estimated population has been consistently rising since 2015 – the earliest year shown on the graph – while crime went up a bit from 2015 to 2017 before significantly dropping between 2017 and 2018.
The drop between those two years was of more than 1,000 crimes, according to the graph.
KPD is waiting on the U.S. Census Bureau to release 2019 population estimates for the city to report the 2019 crime rate.
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