The crime task force did their job in Houston, and now Gov. Abbott is bringing the same tactics to Texas

A rising rate of crime in central Texas is reportedly prompting Governor Greg Abbott to lend a hand to Violent Crimes Task Forces statewide.

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According to police data and reports, the number of violent crimes is increasing in San Antonio, which is in part why, earlier this month, Abbott said he would deploy resources and personnel from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to help police fight violent crime and gangs in the city.

Some of the steps DPS is said to be taking include forming strike teams composed of Highway Patrol troopers, violent crime squads made up of DPS special agents and a team of intelligence analysts.

During an interview, Chief of Police William McManus said his department made 4,100 violent crime arrests so far this year, 400 of whom were gang members, with nearly 700 firearms seized along the way.

McManus also said the extra manpower given to his department will be used where its most needed:

“The task force is taken where the activity dictates. So it can be anywhere in the city. The more people we have, the more visibility we can provide. The more area we can cover, the more days of the week we can cover. More resources equal greater coverage.”

Similar to the one now being implemented in San Antonio, during a statement, Governor Abbott mentioned a program brought to Harris County in August, which he said produced 339 felony arrests, 77 gang investigations and 25 robbery ring busts thus far.

A recent FBI analysis using data from 2016 showed a rise in violent crime in Houston, with over 23,000 incidents of violent crime reported.

This number is up from around 20,000 in Harris County in 2013, a figure which landed the Bayou City in the number three spot on the list of Texas’ most dangerous cities as of 2015.

An interactive map of the city hosted on crimereports.com plotted more recent type crime numbers as part of the uniform crime reporting program the FBI uses to build its reports on crime.

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