Taylor had an interesting 2021 in crime statistics.
“Although there are certain crimes that did increase,” said Chief Henry Fluck, Taylor Police Department, “overall we had a significant decrease,”
Fluck reviewed last year’s crime and police activity during the Taylor City Council meeting Thursday, Feb. 24. Focuses on arrests, calls for service, traffic stops and clearance rates were presented to the council. The information has also been submitted to the FBI’s National Based Incident Reporting System (NIBRS).
The chief first went over Taylor homicides, of which there was only one in 2020.
“We increased in homicides,” said Fluck of 2021. “We had four homicides, and that actually resulted in nine deceased individuals because we had a triple murder-suicide, which was four deceased. We had a murder-suicide which was from a dating relationship, which gave us two deceased. We had a fatal motorcycle collision, which the individual who caused the accident got arrested and charged with intoxicated manslaughter, and that was two individuals on the motorcycle, and then we had one solo homicide that unfortunately remains unsolved at this time.”
Sexual offenses nearly tripled from six in 2020 to 17 in 2021.
“To put it in perspective, 12 of those 17 were family violence offenses,” said Fluck. “Family violence in Texas means it occurred within the household or it occurred as part of a dating relationship.”
There were 187 assaults in Taylor last year, up 25 cases from 2020.
“Ninety-one (assaults) were family violence,” added Fluck.
However, robberies, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts decreased last year from the previous year. As a result, Taylor’s overall crime rate decreased by 22.6%. Total offenses were reduced by 26.6%
“There are some individuals because of national trends of let’s say large increases in crime think the same thing is happening in Taylor,” said Fluck, “and it hasn’t.”
Calls for service went down from 24,726 in 2020 to 20,850 in 2021. However, traffic stops increased from 3,438 to 4,521.
“Traffic stops were up by a thousand,” said Fluck. “which is primarily due to no-thru-truck enforcement.”
Fluck also went over clearance rates for Taylor PD. Clearances refer to when cases are solved through arrest or exception, such as a murder-suicide when an arrest is not possible. Taylor had a 33.33% clearance rate last year, up from 21.48% in 2020.
“When you consider the national average is generally around 20% clearance rate across the nation,” said Fluck, “we came out pretty good.”
Council members lauded Fluck and the police department’s efforts after the report.
“It kind of speaks to the trends of the community and the fact that Taylor is a very safe, low-crime community which I think we (on the council) all know,” said Mayor Brandt Rydell, “but sometimes there is perception at large otherwise, so it’s good to have the data to reinforce this.”
For extended data and the full presentation, visit https://taylortx.swagit.com/play/02252022-626/9.
