When it comes to crime, Colleyville continues leading Texas statistics as one of the safest cities in the state.
Violent crime is down 60 percent in 2016 compared to 2015 and overall crime is down 49 percent from 2010.
There is not a great deal of crime in Colleyville traditionally, but that may not be coincidence.
“Colleyville is a historically low-crime community, but we enjoy a great partnership with our community," Assistant Police Chief Robert Hinton said. “Our community is engaged. We have more community volunteers than we have police officers.”
Police think community involvement has made a difference.
“Police departments can’t fight crime by themselves. They’ve got to have the community’s support,” Hinton said. “Our officers are a part of the community and they have been the eyes and ears and they are the reason why this community has been so safe.”
Colleyville police have several programs in place to keep residents involved and active in fending off crime.
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“Every year, we put on a citizen’s police academy so that our citizens can go through a mini police academy to see what our officers face every day on the streets,” he added. “It takes four months to go through it and they graduate.”
While violent crime is down, home burglaries saw a rise in 2016. Citizens are already stepping up to help in that area as well.
“We have a 'Citizens on Patrol' program that we call a COP program where our citizens go out on patrol after receiving training and they look for different things [like] checking people’s houses when they are out of town,” Hinton explained.
Hinton said residents are dedicated to keeping the city in a low-crime bracket as the city has been named by several national studies the safest city in Texas.
“Some cities don’t utilize those programs the way they should," he said. "We take full advantage of those programs and they have been a great success.”
