Houston crime statistics for 2024: Murders, robberies decrease from 2023

HOUSTON - Murders and robberies dropped from 2023 to 2024 while human trafficking cases saw the largest percent increase year-over-year, according to crime statistics released by the Houston Police Department.

Houston crime trends in 2024

Houston police presented a year in review for 2024 at the Houston City Council Public Safety Committee on Tuesday. It focused on crime trends, recruitment and retention, collaboration efforts, operational challenges and success.

Big picture view:

The report showed a 4.57% increase in violent crimes from 2023 to 2024. Nonviolent crime decreased by 6.52%.

Overall, violent and nonviolent crime decreased by 4.36%.

HPD Public Safety Presentation

Houston violent crime statistics for 2024

Big picture view:

Murders and robberies decreased in 2024 to five-year lows.

Human trafficking saw the largest increase of 29.58%, with 71 cases in 2023 and 92 in 2024. Megan Howard, Assistant Chief of the Homeland Security Command, says the increase is due to a shift in priorities.

"Human trafficking investigations are almost exclusively going to be a result of our proactive investigations, and so what this means when you see the increase, it's actually a reflection of a shift in priorities. Our Vice Division handles primary responsibilities for human trafficking investigations. So those numbers are result of us trying to shift a little bit away from prostitution, specifically. We still do enforcement. It's a nuisance, it is very impactful to certain areas. But we also want to make sure that we give appropriate effort towards human trafficking. So that's a result of us reaching out. If we did not proactively investigate that, our numbers would be lower."

By the numbers:

Here are the violent crime comparisons for 2024: