Traffic and Crime reports

[council3_rubal]

Fellow Councilmembers,
Find below a review for the most recent Police Report. Given that these reports are not discussed in Council, it would be reasonable for reports to provide additional information not only for clarity and information for Council to support Budgets but also transparency for residents. I would welcome comments on this post or the inclusion of other items that you feel should be clarified or reported.

1) Data show a 35% increase in Monthly “Crash” statistics between 2022 and 2024 with approximately a 13% crash injury rate in 2024 and a suggestion of decreased rates during summer months (nonschool). Details are provided for January Crash sites indicating Pat Booker (16), 1604(8) and 78 (4), Kitty Hawk&1976 (2) accounted for 27/32 crashes( = 84%) with remainder (approximately 16%) on roadways within neighborhoods. Note that Athenian and West Byrd are mentioned in this report and previously reported by residents having increased traffic volume.

2) No neighborhood traffic survey (traffic volume & radar speed) was provided in this report. Concerns were expressed by residents regarding increased traffic volume and speed issues on Athenian near the elementary school due to I-35 construction changing traffic flow, suggesting that this area may benefit from an additional survey.

3) As of the last Council meeting, there has been no report from City Committee identified by the City Manager (discussed 18 Jun 2024) associated with recommending improvements in neighborhood traffic safety. It is unclear if this committee has been formed..

4) Pie Chart report titled: Call activity received by Communication Technicians include the following: Officer initiated, 911 emergency and non-emergency telephone calls. It is unclear what this pie chart represents. Pie Chart shows for all districts total = 1614 calls. However, tabular data indicate primary/backup = 1174 and total calls 4476. What does the pie chart represent if it is not “Call activity received by Communication Technicians include the following: Officer initiated, 911 emergency and non-emergency telephone calls?

5) Tabular data total calls = 4476: No information is provided in this report defining if calls are for Police, Fire, Fire Rescue vs EMS. To my knowledge, the Council has not been presented with data for Fire response to actual fires or Fire/Rescue services in Universal City for the past FY or trends in this regard.

6) The police “district” map provides little resolution for identifying problem areas.

7) Fellow Councilmembers, please review the links below. These links review information accessed by potential new residents, realtors, and investors. These data suggest it would be reasonable for Council to review trends for violent crime, property crime, and other crimes in our City.

https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/universal-city/crime
https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-universal-city-tx/
https://www.niche.com/places-to-live/universal-city-bexar-tx/crime-safety/
https://crimegrade.org/violent-crime-universal-city-tx/

Universal City, TX crime rates and safety statistics

Universal City, TX has a higher overall crime rate (54.6) compared to the national average (33.37), with both violent and property crime rates also exceeding national averages. Local residents on Nextdoor have reported incidents such as trespassing, traffic violations, loose dogs, potential...

nextdoor.com

 

[council3_rubal]

1 April 2025 Council presentation by Fire Chief Perna was excellent, showing levels of layered fire suppression support available from not only Universal City Fire Department (and Public works) but also the layered responses from surrounding communities. I would encourage residents to review videos of this presentation.

Also, it is noteworthy that Emergency Response statistics from the Fire Department are now available for residents to review on our City's website. This site provides tabular data for 2023 and 2024. (There may be a slight issue with the new website displaying all stats from 2024 on different computers.)

Emergency Response History | Universal City, TX - Official Website

www.universalcitytexas.gov

The Chief and City Manager also discussed our City’s excellent rating regarding Insurance Service Office (ISO) standards, which are used to "establish appropriate fire insurance premiums for residential and commercial properties. Insurance companies need reliable, up-to-date information about a municipality's fire protection services."

Comment: Response time in emergencies is critical and an element in the ISO standards. Recognizing that our City has become more traffic congested, prior Councils had recommended a traffic management system for emergency vehicles in lieu of building a second fire station on the west side of 1604 to improve response times. Staff input is needed to define where this project is regarding the funding cycle.

Disclaimer: City Council of Universal City. Section 551.006 of the Texas Gov’t Code allows communication or exchange of information between Councilmembers about business or public policy over which the Council has supervision or control if it does not constitute a meeting or deliberation.

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[council3_rubal]

I thank the Chief and the Police Department staff for presenting a review of crime statistics from 2020 to 2024. The Police Department is also has begun reporting improved crime details for patrol zones. These data may be found in Tab L in the agenda. Our police department faces continual challenges in keeping our residents safe. However, the data presented do bear out comparative results from the sources cited above. Although UC crime rate may be comparable with rates in the surrounding communities, the above websites compare UC crime rates to national statistics. Using the Chief's data, the total crime rate in UC is about 2.4x greater than the data for the entire US and 1.9x greater than the total crime rate for all of Texas for the reporting period. The national violent crime rate for the US was 377 per 100K, and UC crimes against persons in UC averaged 1906 per 100K (assault cases being of greatest frequency). On average, for the entire US, property crimes occur 1:43 people, compared to 1:23 people in UC. Property crimes are nearly 2x as frequent in UC compared with all US statistics. Crime trends in UC appear to be consistent with national trends for decreases in both violent and property crime; however, they are significantly higher than national rates..

 

[council3_rubal]

The Crime report provided by UC Police Department is reported as crimes per 100,000 (and compared with similar reference rates for all USA and Texas below). The total number of actual cases in 2024 in UC for Group A offenses was 1,484, which was then reported as a crime rate of 7,375 per 100,000. It is important to distinguish between the number of actual cases and the crime rate. That said, crime rates in UC (and likely surrounding communities) are higher than crime rates for USA and Texas.