With 60 Homicides This Year, Austin Reaches All-Time High

After two homicides early Sunday morning, the city has reached 60 homicides for the year – the most in the 61 years that Austin police have kept records.

The previous number, according to police records obtained by the KVUE Defenders, was 59 homicides in 1984, when the city experienced a three-year surge. The number is also a significant rise from recent years, with 48 homicides in Austin in 2020, 38 in 2019 and 35 in 2018.

Police said they were investigating after a shooting in North Austin and a deadly stabbing that happened downtown on Sunday morning.

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FBI crime data from 2019, the most recent available, showed Austin’s violent crime rate of 400 incidents per 100,000 residents at 28th among the 30 largest cities. Population data from last year show the homicide rate has grown to 6.2 per 100,000 residents this year, up from 5.0 in 2020 and 4.2 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2016.

From 2010 to 2019, Austin averaged 34 homicides per year, making 2020 the highest on record since 1995, when there were 49 homicides.

According to KVUE’s media partners at the Austin American-Statesman, police have filed charges in 49 of the 60 cases this year, or around 82%. {snip}

Crime has become a talking point for the upcoming November elections after political action committee Save Austin Now successfully launched an effort to get a proposition on the ballot requiring a minimum of two police officers per 1,000 population.

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The department launched a Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in April aimed at preventing gun crime in Austin.

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According to APD’S numbers from August, officers have arrested 62 individuals who collectively account for more than 150 individual violent or gun crimes in the Austin area. {snip}

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