CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Alice Police Department recently gave a presentation to city council, regarding the crime rate statistics for their area, a presentation that showed the lowest numbers the department said they’ve never seen.
From 2010-2023, the department has seen over a 70 percent decrease in crimes in different areas. One of the areas they’ve seen a noticeably high decrease in is auto-thefts, at 73 percent.
Alice PD Lt. Enrique Sanez has been with the department for 18 years. He said that he’s seen first-hand the downward trend with overall crime.
“I know the case load we had back then, compared to what I have now, that I issue to the officers is significantly lower,” he said.
Saenz said having resources like grants helps them purchase surveillance cameras. A tool he said helps them stay on top of crime even after it happens.
“Using surveillance cameras in parking lots, at our Walmart, our H-E-B's, their shoplifting cases have gone down tremendously as well,” he said.
Saenz said that crime tends to follow certain trends.
“It's a seasonal thing, we see an uptick around the Christmas season, during the holidays more people are out there stealing,” he said.
3NEWS spoke with Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Rob Mallory, who said when it comes to auto-theft the state is feeling the uptick.
“Looking at the numbers of the last 5 years it's above 80,000 auto-thefts,” he said.
Mallory said that some parts of our region are not seeing as many break-ins.
“There are some counties that are experiencing a downward trend,” he said.