Chief Birkenfeld addresses positive crime report

Earlier this month, Amarillo released the final crime numbers 2023, which showed a decrease in overall crime in the city, especially violent and vehicle theft crimes. Amarillo Police Chief Martin Birkenfeld spoke about the report and his department's efforts to reduce crime in the city.

Among the crimes with the most significant decline was homicide, which fell about 30%, with 16 committed compared to 23 the previous year. Among violent crimes, rape was down 16%, with a reduction of 30 rapes reported from 194 to 164. Aggravated assault saw a slight drop of 4.7%. The only violent crime to rise was robbery, which had five more incidents than the previous year. As a whole, violent crime fell about 5%, with a drop from 1,534 to 1,460 reported crimes.

“For violent crime, we have focused on many different measures to reduce incidents,” Birkenfeld said. “In every shooting case, we send a detective out, and we start working on that case right away and try to figure out who the offender is. With this, we seek accountability and to prevent secondary shootings for retaliation. Also, in robbery cases, we have a detective out as quickly as possible, when someone is armed with a weapon. This has made a difference because our overall robbery numbers are not that high, so a slight reduction makes a significant difference.”

Birkenfeld said that nationwide, violent crime has declined, so some factors cannot be explained just based on local law enforcement. Addressing gang violence is a big push in the department, according to Birkenfeld.

“We have assigned an investigator that has sole responsibility to investigate gang crimes, which should help us to build better data on who is involved in these gang crimes, mostly shootings, robbery, and drug dealing,” he said. “In the federal court system, a gang member can receive additional time in prison if they are identified as a gang member and they commit specific violent crimes.”

Birkenfeld emphasizes that this reduces organized crime.

“The logic is that it is to try to discourage organized crime, which is basically what gangs are,” he said. "Even if it is just a small group of young people dealing drugs, it leads to other, more serious crimes, such as assault, which occur over simple marijuana deals. Everyone thinks that marijuana is a harmless drug, but it causes quite a bit of damage out in our community. Dealing with this as a separate issue helps cut down and discourages participation in gangs.”

One of the factors Birkenfeld says he believes is reducing homicides in the city is the high clearance rate for the city of Amarillo.

“We have one of the highest clearance rates for homicides in the nation,” he said. “Our force works tirelessly on these cases to solve these cases. Our homicide clearance rate has been about 90% consistently over the last few years, while the national average is about 60%. When a homicide happens, we put a lot of resources into holding those accountable and getting justice for the families.”

Birkenfeld said that, by far, most homicides are a result of gun violence.

“I think by addressing issues such as gang violence, other gun crimes and shooting that potentially could be retaliation that we can help reduce the homicides from occurring,” he said. “I am convinced many of the things we are doing is reducing violent crime.”

While he sees the number of rapes in the city as disturbing, Birkenfeld stressed a considerable number of rapes are happening from people familiar with the victim, many of which happen in the home with those familiar with each other.

Property crime saw a greater decline overall, falling 11% from the previous year. The most significant reduction in crime was in vehicle theft, which fell 27%. All property crimes saw a reduction in incidence, with arson and burglary having a 20% drop in crimes. Larceny theft saw the most negligible impact in its numbers but fell about 6%. Overall, property crimes were down from 7,050 to 6,283.

“Property crime has seen a significant downward trend in the last 25 years,” Birkenfeld said. "We have seen fewer thefts and business and home burglaries. Some of that is due to better technology, such as door cameras that identify who is committing crime and serve as a deterrent.”

Birkenfeld sees the drop in vehicle theft showing effects from many of the measures that have been advised, such as not leaving the keys in the car or having unlocked cars when parked.

“A lot of the theft we see on surveillance has thieves looking through a neighborhood for an unlocked car that will be much easier, because a broken window makes a lot of noise," he added.

Speaking on the impact of illegal immigration on crime in the city, Birkenfeld said that he has seen no evidence that it has increased crime rates in the city.

“There is nothing we can tie to illegal immigration rather than the violation of the federal laws themselves,” he said. "There is likely some correlation maybe in areas near the border with a higher concentration of illegal immigrants. In any given population, a certain number of people are involved in criminal activity. As any population grows, you can expect people to be involved in these activities, whether from or outside the area.”

According to Birkenfeld, fentanyl has created a significant increase in deaths from overdoses of the drug.

“Anytime we have an overdose death, we are investigating it like a homicide because somebody provided that drug to that person, contributing to their death,” he said. “If you have dealt or sold drugs to a person and that person dies or is seriously injured, you could be held accountable for that person's death or injury.”

He said there must be a combination of prevention and enforcement to reduce fentanyl deaths.

“This drug is so dangerous because of the unknown factors,” he said. “We need to hold people accountable to have effective laws, but we have to go back to the prevention part with young kids and build that into their brains, that you cannot do this. If you do, you are likely to have long-lasting results of either addiction or death.”

Birkenfeld says that a significant drop in vehicle crime will significantly impact the safety and quality of life of the city’s residents.

“If we can reduce the number of stolen cars even further, that will be good news for the city in general,” Birkenfeld said. "This will reduce insurance rates and make the city safer for the public."

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo police chief Birkenfeld weighs in on 2023 crime report