CRIME

Why Austin leads in homicide arrests

APD's arrest rate is the highest among the largest U.S. cities, an analysis shows

Ryan Autullo
rautullo@statesman.com
Austin police officers apprehend a man near the scene of a homicide at the Towers of Town Lake condominiums on March 7. The Austin police arrest a suspect in nearly three-fourths of all homicides, according to a Washington Post analysis. [NICK WAGNER/AMERICAN-STATESMAN]

Andre Lanier Davis Jr., a beloved presence in the 12th Street area in East Austin, was gunned down in Givens Park on April 9 when police say two men pulled up in a black Nissan and robbed a group of people playing dominoes.

Fifty-one days after the crime, a witness came forward in late May with the tip police needed to close their case and file a capital murder charge against 25-year-old Glenn Madison Deal Jr.

Davis' 28-year-old son, Andre, said he's grateful for investigators' work toward making an arrest and is confident they will identify the second suspect.

"It's very comforting to find out they're doing everything they said they were going to do," he said.

Davis' shooting is one of 11 homicides in Austin this year. Police have made arrests in seven and issued an arrest warrant in another, which is not too far from the homicide unit's usually high clearance rate.

From 2007 to 2017, Austin police arrested a suspect in 73% of the city's homicide investigations, the highest rate in a Washington Post analysis last year of homicide arrests in the nation's 55 largest cities. Austin loomed significantly above the analysis' average arrest rate of 49.6% and other large Texas cities like San Antonio (57%), Fort Worth (54%), Dallas (52%) and Houston (49%).

INTERACTIVE: Learn more about killings in the city at the Statesman's Austin Homicides Project

Austin detectives as well as local and national experts point to several reasons why the city's police have been so successful in solving homicides. Community members often come forward with information about killings — like the witness who identified Davis' killer to police as "Deal" — or respond to media reports and calls for tips, like when a firefighter watching the evening news recognized the suspected attacker in the 2016 strangulation of University of Texas student Haruka Weiser and notified police. That person, Meechaiel Criner, was arrested and found guilty of capital murder last year.

"Time and time again, it's a key witness who will say they heard or saw something and it breaks a case," homicide Detective Nathan Sexton said. "If they wanted to sit on that information we would not be where we're at. To have a good rapport with the community goes miles."

A well-staffed unit

Another factor is Austin's low level of gang activity compared with other big cities. Homicides committed by gang members, experts say, are tougher to solve because witnesses are less likely to cooperate for fear of retaliation and due to a code of silence common among gangs. 

Several experts also noted the abundance of resources Austin pumps into every homicide investigation, something they say is lacking in many other major cities with more homicides than their overwhelmed detectives can handle.

Even while Austin's population has grown to become the 11th largest in the country, the city has remained relatively safe with an average of 28 homicides per year since 2000. Yet even in 2016, when annual killings in the city reached a record 39, the 4.3 homicides per 100,000 residents was well below the 12.9 average homicides in similarly sized cities.

As was the case in Davis' killing, Austin homicide detectives say that allows them enough time to exhaust all leads before moving on to their next investigation.

John Skaggs, a retired Los Angeles police officer who travels the country evaluating homicide units and training their detectives, called Austin's homicide unit "probably the fattest unit I've ever seen or heard of."

In addition to the Austin Police Department's 12 homicide detectives, a tactical intelligence unit frees detectives to canvass neighborhoods or interview witnesses by scouring digital databases for useful information. Two homicide sergeants and a lieutenant chip in when needed, as does the multiagency Lone Star Task Force.

"It's inspiring and helps motivate us to work as hard as we can to find answers for the families of the victims," homicide Detective Paul Chavez said.

In contrast with the homicide unit's robust staffing, Austin police's overtaxed sex crimes unit handles 1,800 cases per year with only one more detective than their counterparts in homicide. That, according to an American-Statesman analysis from last month, leaves sex crimes investigators with an average of 10 hours to solve a case.

The sex crimes unit currently has one less detective than the number suggested in a 2012 recommendation from the Police Executive Research Forum. By 2018, six years after the study, the number of cases the unit handles had gone up 34%.

Best practices

Operating on an on-call rotation, each homicide detective takes the lead on about three cases per year and assists on maybe three more. They also stay busy looking into drownings, suicides and accidental deaths.

The annual budget for Austin's homicide unit is $2.3 million, with $124,737 of it set aside for overtime so detectives can continue to work cases beyond the allotted time in their shift.

Skaggs, who investigated homicides in Los Angeles for more than 20 years, said Austin implements best practices by not diverting the attention of homicide detectives to other crimes, such as burglaries or nonfatal assaults.

"The majority of success for homicide squads in this country comes from two things: how many cases detectives handle per year and the time between cases they receive," said Skaggs, whose police work is highlighted in The New York Times bestseller "Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America."

Chicago police, for instance, tackle more than 500 homicides per year and made arrests in just 26% from 2007 to 2017, according to The Washington Post analysis. Detectives in Detroit, where there are more than 300 homicides per year, arrested a suspect just 41% of the time over eight years. And Jacksonville, Fla., a city with a population comparable to Austin's, had 106 homicides over an 11-year period and made an arrest in less than half of them.

Former Austin Police Monitor Margo Frasier agrees that Austin's high homicide arrest rate is likely a reflection of the low number of homicides that come across detectives' desks.

"While I think the homicide unit is not sitting around with their feet up, they don't have (a heavy) workload because our city doesn't have as many homicides as others," she said.

But Frasier also said the city is fortunate to have "some very solid detectives."

The Police Department has some longtime veterans like Detectives Rogelio Sanchez and Dave Fugitt, who have been with the homicide unit for 17 and 16 years, respectively. Former homicide detectives have used their experience in the unit to springboard to higher positions, including Chief Brian Manley, who investigated homicides for two years in the late 1990s.

Solving tough cases

The homicide unit puts together a summary each year with details about killings, including location, race and the victim's relationship to the killer.

In 2017, eight of the 25 homicides were "stranger-on-stranger," which police define as killings in which the victim was chosen at random or the victim and the suspect were brought together by a location (like a bar) or an activity (like buying drugs).

Experts say those homicides are harder to solve than when, for instance, the victim had a dispute with a significant other or a roommate. But Austin police solved all eight stranger-on-stranger homicides in 2017, having made arrests in seven and filing a warrant in the other to arrest a suspect they believe fled to Mexico.

Police made an arrest in 80% of the 2017 homicides and issued arrest warrants in three others.

Lt. Jeff Greenwalt of the homicide unit said teamwork plays a big part in the high arrest rate.

"We don't draft people who don't want to be here," he said. "Long hours, time away from family, a rigorous on-call schedule. You have to work in a team environment. It's not a one-man show."