BURGLARIES ON THE RISE IN TEXAS:

An insurance industry trade group reported that many Texas cities experienced a noticeable increase in the number of burglaries in 2003 as compared to 2002. Jerry Johns, president of Southwestern Insurance Information Service, said that the Texas Department of Public Safety’s annual crime report shows increases in burglaries in such cities as Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, San Angelo, Mesquite, League City and Midland. “In Dallas burglaries jumped from 20, 351 in 2002 to 21,927 in 2003 while the number of burglaries in San Antonio rose from 13,368 to 14,619 during the same time period,” John said, noting that the burglary rate seems to increase during an economic downturn. Smaller cities also saw an increase in burglaries. “In Abilene burglaries increased from 1,289 in 2002 to 1,814 in 2003 and the picture was not much brighter for people living in North Richland Hills where in 2002 there were 422 burglaries compared to 521 in 2003,” Johns said. Historically the summer months have seen increases in the burglary rate, partly due to the fact that many people go on vacation without taking precautions to reduce the chances of being burglarized. “In Texas one burglary is committed every two and one-half minutes,” Johns explained. “An analysis of crime by volume indicated that the state-wide burglary rate increased 3.3 percent between 2002 and 2003 placing second behind an 8.6 percent increase in the murder rate.”