Crime Rate In Amarillo Down In 2019

Amarillo’s crime rate in 2019 is the lowest in many years, that is according to a report released Monday by the Amarillo Police Department.

Last year there were 9,124 index crimes which include murder, robbery aggravated assault, burglary, auto theft, larceny, and arson compared to the 10,026 index crimes in 2018.

Violent crimes in 2019 decreased by 9.8 percent compared to 2018.

The rate for 2019 is the lowest since at least 1999, which the department says is the earliest year available for the DPS Crime in Texas Reports.

The Amarillo Police Department says this is due in part to the participation in the Project Safe Neighborhood Program which is a partnership between APD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas that focuses on reducing violent crimes.

In 2019 the department also began participating in the Public Safety Partnership Program a U.S. Department of Justice program that helps cities reduce violent crime along with the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network system that lets technicians determine whether ballistic evidence found at a shooting scene is related to ballistic evidence at other shooting scenes.

The department stated that all of these programs matched with ongoing community policing efforts have played vital roles in helping to reduce violent crimes in Amarillo.