Violent crime in Pflugerville down by 23 percent - Austin American-Statesman

The number of violent crimes in Pflugerville dropped by 23 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, according to Pflugerville Police Department data.

Records provided through an open records request show officers handled 126 violent crimes in 2017, including 46 aggravated assaults, 15 robberies, 61 sexual assaults and one murder.

In 2016, the Police Department recorded 164 violent crimes, including 78 aggravated assaults, 57 sexual assaults, 28 robberies and one murder.

Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo said since first joining the Police Department in January 2017, the police force has moved toward a progressive style of enforcement.

“Pflugerville is growing and we’re not going to just wait for statistics to go up,” she said. “We’re going to be proactive versus reactive.”

Police data show the number of violent crimes in Pflugerville increased by 74 percent between 2013 and 2016, when the city population grew by 10 percent.

Robledo said the Police Department is taking violent crime more seriously, which has entailed adding a detective and commander leadership position to its criminal investigation division this year.

She said the department is also training officers to better recognize the warning signs of violent crimes. One of the main areas of concern for officers were aggravated assaults, she said, which accounted for 48 percent of violent crimes in 2016 and 38 percent of violent crimes that have occurred in the city since 2012.

“We like to jump on minor cases quickly,” she said. “If you don’t jump to those quickly, the next one is going to be aggravated (assault).”

Robledo said some perpetrators of violent crimes are not local. She noted the incident in May 2017 involving an East Austin resident, Robert Joseph Uribe, who police said fatally shot Jose Avidan Martinez at an apartment complex. The shooting marked the first homicide case in Pflugerville in at least 15 years.

“Crime is going to happen here, but sometimes by happenstance and not because of folks here,” she said. “That’s why I stress to my guys so much to come out to the community and engage and have partnerships, because if those players are involved, we’ll be able to have a flow of communication and information.”

In terms of partnerships, Robledo said the Police Department recently took part in a multiagency crime initiative in the Wells Branch area resulting in reduced robberies, burglaries and other illegal activity.

“We’re so integrated with the surrounding agencies that we’re just going to participate and make it safe for all citizens,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if we step over the county line. We all work together to make citizens safe.”

New department programs like Coffee with a Cop and Blue Guardian, and events like National Night Out help the community build trust in police.

“Our community works really well with our Police Department,” she said. “We’re only going to be as successful as our community engages us and assists us with solving crime because it takes a village. It takes all of us to come together.”

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