Homicide numbers decreasing in City of Galveston

As many major cities across the country report increases in violent crime, some metro areas are now seeing downward trends.

According to statistics uncovered by FOX 26, homicides are down year over year in Galveston.

"I was looking at the crime statistics over the last five years, they seem to be going down in almost every category," said Galveston Mayor Craig Brown. "I think we’re all concentrating to make sure our public stays as safe as possible."

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In 2020, there were six murders reported in the City of Galveston. In comparison, there were two homicides reported in 2021.

"If our homicides numbers are down, crime is usually down across the board," said Galveston Police Sergeant Derek Gaspard. "Whatever we have to do to make Galveston a safe home [and] safe tourist attraction. That’s what we’re going to do."

On Monday, some people we spoke with in Galveston seemed surprised by the new homicide statistic. However, others didn’t seem shocked at all.

"Coming off the pandemic, everyone is trying to have fun I think," said Trina Brown.  "Nothing serious."

"It just doesn't seem correct," said another Galveston resident.

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Galveston police tell us they’re working through similar staffing issues impacting other major police departments nationwide. Throughout the last few years, we’re told they’ve changed how they police.

"We actually switched to different shifts," said Gaspard. "We went from eight-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts. Putting more officers on the street at a given time. We created new districts within the city. We’ve [also] created a special operations division. We have hot zones. If we have a high crime area, we’ll deploy an entire division to that specific area."