San Antonio's violent crime rate surged by 24.3% in 2016, led by a 55% increase in the city's murder rate, according to figures out today from the FBI, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
There were 149 murders in the Alamo City last year, compared with 94 in 2015.
The increase in murders led to a 24.3% increase in violent crime in San Antonio last year, according to the FBI.
641 out of every 100,000 San Antonians was the victim of a violent crime, such as assault, rape, or aggravated robbery, in 2016. That's compared to 516 victims of violent crime per 100,000 in 2015.
San Antonio's 2016 numbers in violent crime and murder are comparable to other major cities.
For example, while there were 10 murders for every 100,000 residents of San Antonio in 2016, the murder rate in Chicago was 28.6 per 100,000, and in Detroit it was 45.4.
There were more murders per capita in Dallas and Houston last year than in San Antonio, but San Antonio has more murders per capita than New York City or Los Angeles.
The overall violent crime statistics are similar.While 641 out of every 100,000 San Antonians was the victim of a violent crime in 2016, in Chicago that was 992 per 100,000 and in Memphis it was 1803 per 100,000.
Crime rates, and murder rates, in El Paso and San Diego, the two largest cities on the US Mexico border, are among the lowest in the country, countering the 'No Country for Old Men' perception that the border is somehow overrun with violence.
"Although there are some troubling increases in murder in specific cities, these trends do not signal the start of a new national crime wave," said the Brennan Center for Justice in an analysis of the data. "What’s more startling, this analysis finds that the increase in murders is even more concentrated than initially expected. Chicago now accounts for more than 55.1 percent of the total increase in urban murders — up from an earlier projection of 43.7 percent."
Backing up the Brennan Center's analysis is the fact that while violent crime in San Antonio is up 24.3%, the city's total crime rate, which includes the sorts of crimes that the vast majority of people are more likely to be victims of, like theft, shoplifting, and car theft, was up 5.5% in 2016, less than the increase in the city's population.
San Antonio Police have long pointed out that the spike in violent crime and murder generally affects a handful of well known areas, and is not endemic across the entire city.
"This analysis finds that Americans are safer today than they have been at almost any time in the past 25 years," the Brennan Center concludes.