Houston averaged slightly more than four murders a week during 2012, inching up from 2011 when the total dropped to the lowest point since 1966, says the Houston Chronicle. Police reported 216 murders for the 12 months ending Monday – up from 198 in 2011. Still, said homicide Capt. David Gott, that is “an incredibly low number.”
Gott was at a loss to explain the city’s low murder total. “It’s a little hard to tell,” he said, adding that the figure is in keeping with a national decline in murders. “Ours is a greater drop than most other major cities,” he said. “Murder is such a random act. It’s very hard to predict with all the factors involved.” William King, associate criminal justice dean at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, cited better directing of police resources at crime hot spots. “It’s not always even a neighborhood, it can be a block or an intersection,” King said. “It’s a matter of having cops be alert for particular activities.”