Editor’s note: Many Killeen residents, officials and community leaders say solving crime is a priority. In a series of stories over the next few months, the Herald will look at the source of crime, how crime affects residents’ quality of life and potential solutions.
In many ways, Killeen is like other cities its size in Texas.
A giant mass of concrete lined with chain restaurants and hotels sweeps through its center. High school sports demand attention — so much attention the school district approved a $1 million scoreboard purchase in 2017. Tacquerias and BBQ restaurants are plentiful. It’s difficult to spend more than a few minutes on the road without seeing an oversized pickup truck.
In many ways, this Texas city of 145,645 people is different.
Killeen is the home of Fort Hood, one of the largest military posts in the country. With that has come a young, transient population with an average age in the mid-20s. The post also attracts Army retirees as young as their late 30s. Many of those oversize pickup trucks bear Purple Heart license plates, and 2,769 homes have disabled veteran property tax exemptions.
Many homes in Killeen are multifamily - duplexes, fourplexes, sixplexes, eightplexes and apartments. Rapid growth south of the highway resulted in a sea of roofs from tightly spaced single-family homes and duplexes.
In Killeen’s ethnically diverse neighborhoods and leadership, race does not divide people, and nearly everyone worries about crime.
IMAGE OF CRIME
There is much speculation about why Killeen gets a reputation for crime.
With a city highly populated by soldiers and their families and about 15,500 people living on post, come stereotypes: domestic violence, accidents caused by soldiers evading arrest and a large amount of drunken and disorderly conduct arrests. Police in 2015 said 80 percent of homicides were related to domestic violence.
Some people blame the young soldiers in the Army for attracting drugs and prostitution. On Feb. 1, four Fort Hood soldiers were arrested as part of a Bell County prostitution sting.
Some say Killeen’s reputation stems from violence in its history.
On Oct. 16, 1991, a man killed 23 people at the now-closed Luby’s Cafeteria. That was the deadliest mass shooting in United States history until the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Two shootings at Fort Hood — one that killed 13 people and another that left four dead, including the shooter — occurred in 2009 and 2014, respectively.
There has long been an unproven theory circulating that the increase in crime is a result of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who came to Killeen in 2005 and never left. Despite the natural disaster uprooting New Orleans residents more than a decade ago, that theory lingers, and is still mentioned by city officials and police officers.
David Burke has lived in both Killeen and New Orleans. He had family come stay with him after Katrina, but after a few weeks, they went elsewhere.
“It’s a crime-ridden city, New Orleans, but when they moved to Killeen, they said it was boring and (they) couldn’t get any food that they were used to,” he said. “Very few people stayed; a lot of them went to Houston, Dallas, the bigger cities.”
CURRENT CONCERNS
Perceived current danger is a hot topic at neighborhood meetings, candidate forums and police community meetings.
Killeen City Councilwoman Shirley Fleming has held neighborhood crime prevention meetings for residents of District 1 — the area of town she believes has the most crime — since she was elected in 2015. She said the top two concerns among her constituents are shootings and home burglaries, in that order. Fleming is worried about the potential break-in of her own home, and takes careful note of people in her neighborhood whom she does not recognize.
Former Councilman Brockley Moore and current Councilwoman Debbie Nash-King have held crime prevention meetings as well. Many of the meetings feature at least one police officer, and often the chief is present. Nearly all are well-attended.
RESIDENT
Concerns about crime can change the way people live.
Resident Kim-Marie Smith grew up living downtown, left for 10 years, then returned a year ago. She said she doesn’t feel any more or less safe now than she did 10 years ago, but is constantly aware of sketchy behavior in the area. She keeps a baseball bat by her front door at all times. Drug users and prostitutes are frequently in the area, she said.
Once, a man knocked on her door at 11 p.m., asking if she wanted to buy an XBox One. Another time, a woman walked around the neighborhood without wearing any clothes in broad daylight. Nighttime worries Smith most.
“I stop feeling safe after dark,” Smith said. “I try not to go anywhere,”
In the greater downtown area, there were a whopping 301 assaults. Comparatively, there were just 32 vehicle thefts, 43 burglaries, 26 burglaries from a vehicle and 31 robberies.
COMPARING CITIES
For Texas cities with populations between 100,000 and 200,000, the average number of slayings in a year is six, according to data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report for 2015, its most recent. Killeen had 17 homicides in 2015, 16 in 2016 and 21 homicides last year, 18 of which were investigated as criminal. In 2015, Killeen’s slayings outnumbered those in six states: New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota and North Dakota.
In 2006, there were a little over 100,000 residents in Killeen. Violent crimes included eight criminal homicides, 81 rapes, 246 robberies, 452 aggravated assaults, 5,471 property crimes and 2,121 burglaries, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.
POLICE PERSPECTIVE
Bobby Castillo is a patrol officer with the Killeen police, and has been for nearly 13 years. It is his belief that the increase in crime has come with the drastic population increase over the course of his time here. However, the accessibility to social media and constant fear of becoming a victim have led residents to develop a deeper fear of the crime that may never happen to them.
“With most homicides, typically people get so upset and think ‘Oh, all these people are getting killed,’ but there’s typically a link,” Castillo said. “A lot of homicides deal with drugs or domestic violence, it’s important you have strong, specific sections (of the police department). You need to have sufficient detectives, (catching) guys who are buying and selling drugs so you can prevent these things. With things like domestic violence, victims have to reach out to us, and unfortunately we can’t just predict those things.”
Police Chief Charles “Chuck” Kimble has said 80 percent of the crime is caused by 20 percent of the people in the city, and Detective Frank Plowick agreed with that sentiment in an email exchange Tuesday.
Kimble also said that after some research, his department finds a large portion of the gun violence stems from firearms stolen during home and vehicle burglaries. If you decrease the burglaries, you can decrease the shootings, according to Kimble.
Plowick doesn’t think people are more afraid of crime now than they were years ago, but he does agree that people are more aware of what’s going on.
“Unfortunately, I have seen crime reported in a nearby area and people assumed it was in Killeen,” he said. “We live fast-paced lives with a lot of information coming at us from several avenues, allowing for easily misunderstood information.”
Castillo believes it has become more difficult to police juvenile suspects since legislation was passed in 2013 limiting officers from arresting juveniles who commit crimes that are normally arrestable offenses. Many times, he has arrested teenagers for a burglary or car theft, watched them get out of custody, and see them connected to another crime not long after. Youth crime statistics don’t show that juveniles are the primary cause of the city’s crime, but if they are rarely arrested and charged with a crime, that could be why.
“These aren’t kids who were shoplifting; these are kids who are doing adult crimes,” Castillo said. “We’ll arrest them for these felony crimes just for them to be released the next day. It’s fighting an uphill battle that we’ll never win.”
IMPROVING THINGS
At first look, it might appear that violent crime is decreasing. There has been only one criminal homicide so far this year, as of Thursday, but Plowick insists it’s too soon to rush to judgment.
“It does appear that violent crime has trended downward; however, we need more data (time) to truly say that,” he said. “It would be irresponsible to discuss a ‘trend’ with only one or two quarters of data.”
Residents are hopeful, though. Council members are still planning neighborhood watch meetings, and KPD Crime Prevention Coordinator Tammy Moseley is still busy encouraging people to get to know their neighbors. The Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs is working with KPD to analyze crime and department practices in the city, and Kimble’s hope is that a detailed plan of attack will arise when that study is finished.
When former New Orleans resident Burke arrived in Killeen in 1995, he said, his new city, Killeen, was known for being a relatively high-crime area, but area residents warned about Waco and Temple before mentioning Killeen. Now, his wife — who worked at Scott & White Medical Center in Waco — was often asked how she could bear to live in such a “crime-ridden city.”
“They always ask her, well, why don’t you just move to Belton?” he said.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
Tell us about crime in your neighborhood. Send an email with your contact information and a description of your concerns and how you cope with them. How does concern about crime affect your schedule and your quality of life? Please provide information for reporters to follow up with you. Your contact information will not be made public. Send your email to news@kdhnews.com and put KILLEEN CRIME in the subject field. Thank you for participating in our community.
KILLEEN DEMOGRAPHICS
Population: 145,625
Average income: $47,556
Average age: 28
Racial makeup:
35 percent black
30 percent white
25 percent Hispanic
3 percent Asian
2 percent Other
5 percent two or more
Source: U.S. Census
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