Irving Crime Less Since 2007 Illegal Alien Ordinance

City officials say no one individual factor is to be credited

Irving city officials say there is no one factor that caused
a dramatic reduction in the crime rate since the adoption of
a tough city ordinance concerning illegal aliens.

Certainly, the fact that 4,000 foreign nationals in the U.S.
illegally have been detained by city police has helped, but
everyone from the Mayor and Chief of Police point to an
aggressive clean-up of multifamily rental properties and
give equal weight to the fact that about 1,000 substandard
properties have been condemned and demolished.

The resulting reduction in crime rate has approached as much
as 75 percent on one block adjacent to an elementary school.

The ordinance, enacted in 2007, allows city police to detain
for immigration authorities anyone apprehended for a crime
who cannot establish their citizenship or their status as a
legal resident of the U.S.

As such, it is almost identical to a new state law enacted
in Arizona that has aroused huge resentment and allegations
of racism.

So far, the city has spent about $200,000 defending lawsuits
alleging racial discrimination in connection with the
ordinance.

Key to reduction of the crime rate, according to landlords
and real estate professionals, is the near universal
practice of landlords who do a background check on
prospective tenants. Rapists, robbers, murderers, burglars
and drug offenders are eliminated right off the bat as a
result of these checks.

Managers who lease to tenants who have been convicted of
sexual assault, arson and the manufacture or sale of drugs
could face Class C misdemeanor charges.

On a crime index of 100 for the safest rate, Irving weighs
in at 47.

The national median for crimes per square mile is 49.6.
Irving's rate compares at 157, compared with 71 per square
mile in other Texas cities.

It indicates that last year's 815 violent crimes affected
4.25 residents per l,000 out of the city's total population.
The median level for Texas is 5.81.

Crimes against persons improved to the rate of 0.05 per
1,000, 0.27 rapes, and 1.30 robberies.

In property crimes, Irving reported a total of 8.01 per
1,000 in an overall burglary rate of 1,535 reported. Thefts
totaled 7,257 for a rate of 37.87 and an auto theft rate of
6.64 on a total 1,273 reported.

The Irving rates, though dramatically improved, are
significantly higher than national statistics of 7.27
burglaries per 1,000, 22.86 thefts and 4.17 motor vehicle
thefts.