KILLEEN, TX — Killeen is home to over 150 thousand people and many of them being veterans or active-duty military serving at Fort Hood.
”It has history, it is the home of heroes," said Charles Kimble, chief of the Killeen Police Department.
But here’s the thing, Killeen has long held a reputation of being a high crime city and Killeen residents know that.
”A lot of them are concerned about that but, the good thing is that given the size of the city of Killeen, the crime is relatively small,” said Kimble.
According to Killeen PD, the rate of violent crime has risen up from 50 violent crimes per 100-thousand people in January of 2021, to over 57 in January of this year.
It is an increase Chief Kimble contributes recent growth in the city.
”There is a lot of building in Killeen. We’re building homes, we’re building schools. There's a brand-new school right down the street from here. Which is a good thing but, it also brings crime because criminals see the same opportunity as businesspeople,” said Chief Kimble.
According to the Census Bureau, the population of Killeen grew from nearly 128,000 in 2010 to over 153,000 in 2020.
According to Chief Kimble, that means the rate of crime is actually going down.
”The amount of crime has been up and down, it’s pretty stable but, the population of Killeen has increased a lot. So, we’re measured on the rate of crime and given the size of this city and level of crime, the crime rate has actually gone down for the past four years,” said Chief Kimble.
The majority of people in Killeen never even see a crime but, not everyone rides the straight and narrow.
”There is a small population that is feeding on most law-abiding citizens, and we will aggressively go after them.” said Chief Kimble.
KPD says you can help by saying something if you see something.
