TYLER, Texas — Murder incidents, burglary, robbery, assault and auto theft are all up 4.5% in Tyler from 2019.
"We don't like to see any crimes reported," said Chief Jimmy Toler with the Tyler Police Department. "We don't like to see anyone get hurt. But I think that's a factor we're dealing with. And we're actually seeing that number decrease as we go through this year."
Toler said in that year span between 2019 and 2020, violent crimes rose 15%. Among those were domestic violence crimes.
Ana Barnson, Director of Client Services with the East Texas Crisis Center, said the beginning of the pandemic was eerily quiet at their facility.
She said, “At the beginning of COVID, survivors couldn't reach out to organizations. They didn’t have the chance to go and ask for help- they didn’t have the chance to be able to call because abusers are at home.”
When lockdown restrictions eased up, client need surged, specifically for hotline calls or chat services which is a new initiative at the center to help survivors who can’t call, send a message for help instead.
“Sometimes it's about just asking questions, talking to an advocate and asking if those behaviors that are happening in the relationship are healthy or not healthy," Barnson added.
Though crime rates in Tyler increased in the past two years, police data show they're on par with the five-year average. Crime rates in 2020 were actually down 14% from what they were in 2016.
Chief Toler said his team is working to bring crime rates down as close to zero as humanly possible.
He said, “We track hotspot maps where it shows us where the crimes are occurring, and we shift resources as part of our priority response team to those areas to saturate and suppress crime."
Crime rates in Longview trended down since 2019 by 5.2%