No homicides recorded in San Marcos in 2022

San Marcos officially made it through a full year without a homicide.

The City of San Marcos has not been without a homicide since 2014, according to San Marcos Chief of Police Stan Standridge. In 2021 alone, there were five homicides.

“Folks, you should be dancing on your rooftop to know you had zero homicides,” Standridge said during the Chief’s Advisory Panel meeting on Wednesday. “At a time when everybody's homicide rates are going up, violence all across the nation's going up, your city experienced zero homicides. That's the focus of the community, and that's the focus of your police department. We're getting healthier; We're getting better.”

Violent crime also went down in Q4 2022, although Standridge admitted San Marcos Police Department is not “100% confident” in the numbers because the department recently switched to a new software system.

Standridge said he would attribute the reduction of violent crime in San Marcos to two factors: community education and SMPD’s recent establishment of a Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT).

Standridge says VCAT has been “remarkably successful” in apprehending violent criminals since it was implemented in Q2 2022.

“Case in point, we had a shooting where somebody pumped a lot of AK-47 rounds into a home,” Standridge said. “[VCAT], they're not going to just settle for the primary charge. They’re going to run or apply for search warrants on the cell phone, [on] residences. They will find any additional felonious offenses associated with the primary offenses.”

SMPD has also implemented a Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) and intelligence-led policing through Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Solutions (DDACTS).

“In other words, you put up a big map, you figure out where your crashes are, and you put a dot. You figure out where your crimes are, you put a dot,” Standridge said. “Nine times out of 10, those dots will overlay the same area. So the chief who oversees the operations says,
‘OK, we know where the dots are. Let's put the cops on dots ’.”

Standridge also presented Q4 2022 Cite-and-Release (C&R) statistics at the meeting.

There are seven C&R-eligible charges, according to Standridge, which are Theft of Property, Theft of Service, Criminal Mischief, Graffiti Possession of Marijuana less than 4 oz., Driving while License Invalid, Class C Misdemeanors excluding Public Intoxication, Assault, or Family Violence.

Standridge said out of the total offenses reported in Q4 2022, only 9% were C&R eligible. Of that 9%, 21 resulted in on-view arrest, and 25 were summoned or cited.

The most common C&R offense was disorderly conduct, followed by Theft of Property less than $100.

“I will tell you all, since you’re the Chief Advisory Panel, that shoplifting is actually a much, much greater problem, but the retailers are simply not calling us anymore, because they know nothing is being done,” Standridge said.

Property crimes are also up “at least 9%,” because people have been leaving their firearms in locked or unlocked vehicles, Standridge added.

“We have had dozens of firearms stolen, and it’s on a weekly basis,” he said. “Our concern, if they’re stealing firearms, those firearms are going to be used in the commission of violent offenses ... So we have a lot more work to do,” Standridge concluded.

Newly-elected Hays County District Attorney Kelly Higgins couldn’t have agreed more, as he described the 17-month backlog in criminal cases he discovered during his few first weeks in office.

“When I say a 17-month backlog, I mean an arrest that was made 17 months ago has not had any lawyer’s eyes on it since the arrest,” Higgins said. “That is intolerable.”

Higgins was invited to the Chief Advisory Panel on Wednesday to introduce himself and outline his priorities for 2023.

Higgins said as district attorney, he will clear the backlog, create an intake division and Special Victims Unit, and “maintain vertical prosecution.”

“Virtual prosecution means when a case comes in the door, it’s assigned to an ADA — an Assistant District Attorney, one of my prosecutors,” Higgins said. “I am going to continue to do that with cases that do have victims, or if somebody died, their family.

“When we can work through the backlog, we are going to be able to take a case from one of your agencies [and] have a lawyer’s eyes on it within 72 hours,” Higgins said.

Higgins, a Democrat, was elected over Republican challenger David Puryear in the Nov. 8, 2022 Election. Higgins officially took office on Jan. 1.

The Chief’s Advisory Panel was created to “be a resource in the formation of strategies, development of community policing concepts, solicitation of customer feedback, and the enhancement of community trust,” according to the SMPD website.

Public meetings with the Advisory Panel are held on a quarterly basis and announced via the SMPD website and social media avenues.

Watch the full meeting at https://www.sanmarcostx.gov/3686/Meeting-Recordings.