Annual Edinburg PD Report Highlights Some Crime Stats Down
Arnoldo Mata
Edinburg TX – Edinburg Police Chief Jaime Ayala shared the Police Department’s 2024 Annual Report. Ayala highlighted where crime went down along with areas where the city is still experiencing probles.
“Overall, crime over the last four years has been decreasing,” Ayala told the Edinburg City Council during this week’s meeting. “Specifically, 19.5% when you talk about sexual assault, robbery, assault, and murder. The team continues to work extremely hard at addressing crime hotspots and making sure that we’re visibly present, not only enforcing the law, but also with community engagement.”
The report noted that crimes against property were down almost 25% since 2021. Year to date from 2023 to 2024, there was an almost 20% reductions in crimes against property.
However, motor vehicle theft continues to be a problem, not only in South Texas, but other parts of the state as well. Edinburg had 174 vehicles stolen last year. “We continue to work with our federal partners who are helping us with this as well as our state and local partners to try to get a handle on these thefts, why the thefts are occurring and the organized crime part of these motor vehicle thefts,” Ayala said.
The City had slightly more than a 12% increase in arrests from 2023. Since 2021, there was a 59% increase in arrests. “The enforcement continues to go up,” Ayala said, “and I think it’s a really good reason as to why we’re seeing some crime reductions is because of the visible presence of our officers.”
Traffic stops increased 22% in the last year, but in the last four years, they increased 106%. “So our officers are very engaged with neighborhood traffic issues, speeding in school zones, and speeding across the city in an attempt to reduce crashes” the Chief explained. “Now, you know that we’ve had a focus on DWI awareness since we had some serious fatality crashes recently.”
Over the last four years, there was 110% increase in DWI arrests and from 2023 to 2024, a 36% increase. There were 617 DWI arrests last year. “We created the DWI Enforcement unit a year and a half ago, and those officers there have done a phenomenal job at making themselves available every night” Ayala explained.
Ayala also credited the City’s participation in the National Association of Town Watches National Night Out. For the third year, the City improved its ranking to ninth in the country for its National Night Out efforts.
“We brought Domino (canine officer) on as a donation from Canine for Warriors. Domino continues to not only be present in and around our department with our employees, but he and his handler do assist other agencies in times of crisis, when they want a therapy dog, in addition to other resources from around the area,” Ayala said.
Ayala also noted programs that were launched last year. “One of them was a teen academy. We had two sessions with 20 participants each. We were able to indoctrinate teens into what a police academy would be like, what policing is and the equipment and the different assignments that we have. That was extremely successful,” he added. “We are looking forward to doing it again this summer. We also did our Dog Walker Watch kickoff last year for the first year. This is just people who walk dogs in your neighborhood report suspicious activity, be our eyes and ears.”
The Department also partnered with CAPABLE kids, having them at the police department. The COP unit took the students in and around the police station.
Ayala also highlighted the Annual Edinburg Police Department Awards Program, which is in its third year. “We’re really, really proud of what they have done in their service to this community,” he commented.
Ayala closed by inviting the City Council to participate in Ride-Along night with the Police.