By Anita Miller & Ashley Landis
San Marcos Police Chief Howard Williams, for one, is out to prove what many in the community already know — San Marcos is a pretty safe place in which to live and work.
Over the past couple of weeks, he’s presided at three “community meetings” to talk about safety with residents but hardly anyone has showed up, he said on Friday, a day before a scheduled fourth meeting.
He’s also planning to send out letters early next year to community groups, offering to rehash statistics that show our town is not only among the safest among cities its size but also among any city in Texas.
“So far, people I’ve spoken to have reflected their lack of concern over safety in San Marcos,” he told the city council on Tuesday night. “Everybody feels pretty safe here.”
The normally calm community was shaken in the late summer and fall by a series of violent instances including the murder of 30-year-old Byron Burse Aug. 26 and three armed robberies later linked to drug dealing. Two teenagers from Luling were killed in one of those cases, on Sept. 4, when a resident opened fire on the intruders.
The next month, a resident was wounded when two suspects burst into an apartment off IH-35 North and started shooting on Oct. 20. The next day, a resident on Oscar Smith Lane got a gun and fired three shots into 21-year-old Denis Andrew Nefedov after he burst in.
Williams had, at the time, assured the community that anyone not involved with illegal drugs had little to fear. “These were not random acts of violence,” he said. “It’s not something the average God-fearing citizen has to worry about.”
Crime statistics back him up. According to 2007 Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, San Marcos has a crime rate not only lower than the state average but lower than many surrounding communities.
Based on an index of crimes per 1,000 population in 2007, San Marcos came in at 37.1, compared to a state average of 46.3. In Seguin, it’s 50.9, in New Braunfels, 43.1, in Austin, 68.8 and in San Antonio, 69.5.
Only College Station, with a rate of 36.5 and Huntsville, at 32.1, were lower than San Marcos in the incidence of murder, rape, robbery, aggravate assault, burglary theft/larceny and auto theft.
In 2008 reporting, San Marcos came in at 35.1, compared to a state average of 44.9. In 2008 in Seguin the rate was 58.6, in New Braunfels, 42.3, in Austin, 64.6, in San Antonio, 79.4, in College Station 39.8 and in Huntsville, 35.8.
When San Marcos’ crime rate is compared to that of other university cities across the country, it comes in right in the middle. University communities with lower crime rates include Stillwater, OK (Oklahoma State University), Boone, NC (Appalachian State University), Ames, IA (Iowa State University) and Fullerton, CA (California State University-Fullerton). Communities with higher crime rates include Boca Raton, FL (Florida Atlantic University), Lincoln, NE (University of Nebraska), Burlington, VT (University of Vermont), Syracuse, NY (Syracuse University) and Athens, GA (University of Georgia).
Texas State University geography students analyzed local crime statistics in a recent assignment by Dr. Sven Furhman.
They used the software ArcGIS, a powerful Geographic Information System, to predict crime trends like the correlation between drug violations and university enrollment, shots fired in relation to low-income areas, gang activity, sex offenses and drunk driving.
“We’ve never sat down and looked at patterns before,” Williams said. “We don’t have an analyst, so the university is kind of doing our analysis for us.”
Furhman said his class didn’t see much of a change in crime rates over the past three years since they’ve used the ArcGIS software, and the city’s “hot spots” stayed the same.
“I wanted to alert students and make them better citizens. It’s important that they learn about the community and meet our local law enforcement, so they see them as more than just the flashing lights in their rear view mirror,” Furhman said.
Students provided maps and other visuals to show different levels of crime in areas of San Marcos, along with written conclusions, which will be provided to the police department.
“People have questions about things going on in their neighborhoods,” Williams said. “It would be nice to have a notebook of those kinds of things to be able to show them.”
