The McAllen Police Department isn’t bragging, but the numbers speak for themselves.
By the end of 2021, the city saw its 12th consecutive year with a reduction in the rate and volume of crime, which has decreased nearly 78% since 1995 when it had the highest crime rate in the city’s history.
Those statistics come from the department’s annual crime report.
The police department is required by law to compile crime statistics and report them to the FBI.
The report is commonly known as uniform crime reporting, but 2021 marks the first time police are reporting these statistics under the National Incident-Based Reporting System — the new reporting model used by the FBI.
The former model included eight types of crime categories, but this new system catalogs 24 different categories.
The only catch for this year's report is that because of the change, the department is unable to compare these 24 categories to 2020, which is because in 2020 it still used the former system that included the eight categories.
Another highlight of the report is that the city of McAllen did not report a murder offense in 2021.
Last year the department reported 8,431 incidents of crime, 31% of which were crimes against a person; 51% were crimes against property; and 18% were crimes against society, according to the report.
There were a total of 4,289 arrests for 2021.
Those arrests are broken down into two categories, "Group A" and "Group B" arrests.
There are 52 offenses included in "Group A," which fall into three categories: crimes against persons, crimes against property and/or crimes against society.
These offenses accounted for 46% of 2021 arrests.
During the reporting year, there were 2,572 crimes against persons, which accounted for 31% of those offenses.
The report says there were a total of 4,328 crimes against property for 51% of these offenses and there were 1,531 crimes against society for 18% of the offenses.
In this category, police arrested a total of 1,990 people, including 500 juveniles and 1,490 adults.
It should be noted that multiple "Group A" offenses may be reported for a single incident.
As for "Group B" offenses, those include crimes like disorderly conduct, alcohol-related offenses, trespass, non-violent family offenses, loitering, bad checks and "Peeping Tom" crimes.
There were a total of 2,299 of these arrests, which included 1,741 adults and 558 juveniles.
This data allows the department to be proactive in crime prevention.
"The McAllen Police Department continues to use statistical resources by collecting information, analyzing crime trends, carefully planning strategic operations, and administrative operational functions of the Department, that are used for preventing and suppressing criminal activities," McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez wrote in the report.
This allows police to identify crime issues and enables it to address problems while directing resources to where they are needed most.
"In closing, I express my thanks to all the members of our community and members of the McAllen Police Department for their continued commitment and dedication to our commuity by continuing to display the principles of community oriented policing, as well as high visibility, strict enforcement of the law, and professionalism," Rodriguez wrote.
The full report can be found at: www.mcallen.net/departments/pd/records-bureau/crime-reports.
