ABC13 Safety Tracker: How safe is downtown Houston?

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- As thousands of baseball fans get ready to pack Houston, state and federal law enforcement agencies are bracing for anything.

There's an effort to tackle crime that goes beyond the World Series as data downtown sees an increase in crimes like robberies and auto thefts.

"Thousands of guns are stolen out of vehicles in our city each year. You cannot get into the park with your gun, so if you don't have a safe, leave the guns at home," said Chief Troy Finner.

The focus on downtown safety this week is on the big game. However guns stolen out of cars is an issue all the time in our city.

HPD tells 13 Investigates every day at least 10 guns are stolen from vehicles across our city.

But we want to take a wider look at what we're seeing through the ABC13 Neighborhood Safety Tracker on downtown crime.

Frank's Pizza on Travis has been standing since 1997. Workers have seen the city grow and change first-hand.

"If you mind your business, stay to yourself, nothing is going to happen to you. You get to hang out in downtown and experience a different side of the Houston nightlife," said Frank's Pizza employee Michael Melgar.

The good news? Robberies are down 12 percent across our city. However downtown robberies appear to be on the rise.

In the last 12 months there have been 84 robberies in that area -- 69 cases were seen in all of last year. It's important to note the data shows robberies are down from pre-pandemic times.

Which brings us to auto thefts. They're up 17 percent across the city...

Statistics show downtown is no stranger to this crime, seeing an increase from 237 cases last year to 327 cases in the last 12 months. 2019 saw half the amount of cases.

As for homicides in downtown, data shows they're rare in the area.

Businesses like this pizzeria hope it stays that way as they work to stay in the downtown area for decades to come.