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Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024

Was El Paso one of the safest big cities in the US in 2022?

Brandy Ruiz, El Paso Matters
yes

In 2022, the most recent year available, the El Paso Police Department reported 1,692 crimes per 100,000 people. Only nine of the nation’s 100 largest cities reported lower crime rates, according to crime data compiled by the FBI.

Frisco and Laredo, which are less than half as populous as El Paso, were the only Texas cities with lower crime rates.

The city with the highest crime rate, Tacoma, Washington, had almost six times more reported crimes per capita than El Paso in 2022.

Politicians such as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have linked undocumented immigrants and crime in discussions about the U.S.-Mexico border. A 2020 PNAS study, which analyzed arrests recorded by the Texas Department of Public Safety between 2012 and 2018, found that undocumented immigrants had lower felony crime rates than both legal immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens in Texas.

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