Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody‘s reelection campaign is making claims that his “record of accomplishment” includes “pushing crime lower.” As evidence, Chody’s campaign materials cite Williamson County’s robbery, murder, assault, burglary, and car theft rates, which are all 21 to 96 percent below national averages. However, the Chody campaign makes no reference to crime rates when he took office in 2017 compared to now.
In fact, low crime rates have been a fact of life in Williamson County long before Chody became sheriff. In 2017, the Williamson County cities of Cedar Park, Leander, Round Rock, Hutto, and Georgetown all ranked on the SafeWise list of the 100 safest cities in the United States. All but Round Rock made the 50 safest cities cut.
While Chody’s campaign provides no context around the “pushing crime lower” claims, the well known Williamson County government integrity blogger, who publishes anonymously under the pseudonym Buddy Falcon looked up the comparative stats:
Let’s take a look at the real numbers, comparing 2016 before [Chody] took office to the most recent available, 2019.
2016 All Violent Crimes=175; 97 cleared
2019 All Violent Crimes=189; 39 cleared
All Violent Crime rate has increased 8% with a 60% decrease in clearance
According to Buddy Falcon’s post quoted above, “Crime is reported to the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System by each agency in the US. These are the numbers from that site. You can take a look for yourself here.“
Williamson Reporter 