Violent crime in Houston has dropped by 10 percent in 2022, according to a police survey.

Houston saw a nearly 10 percent drop in homicides and other violent crime from 2021 to 2022, a steeper year-on-year decline than the United States as a whole, according to a nationwide report released Thursday by a professional organization of police leaders.

The Major Cities Leaders Association (MCCA), which serves the US and Canada, reported a 0.8% drop in violent crime nationwide based on data provided by 70 law enforcement agencies in major US cities. The Houston Police Department (HPD) was one of seven US agencies reporting a decrease in all four types of violent crime included in the study: homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, with the remainder in Dallas; Indianapolis; Oakland, California; St. Louis County, Missouri; Tucson, Arizona; and Wichita, Kansas.

In 2022, HPD reported a total of 26,223 such violent crimes, a 9.9% decrease from the 28,825 reported a year earlier, according to the survey. Three major cities in the country – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – reported a general increase in violent crime.

Houston’s 435 homicides in 2022 represent a 9.7 percent year-over-year decline in this category, but rank fourth in the nation behind Chicago (697), Philadelphia (516) and New York City (438). The total number of homicides in Houston last year also increased nearly 50 percent from 2019, the last year before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data released last month by HPD.

A national report showed that in Houston, aggravated assault was down 9 percent, robbery by 10 percent, and rape by 24 percent compared to last year. Nationwide, homicides and rapes were down 5% year-over-year, while robberies were up 5% and aggravated assaults up 0.2%.

The 2022 crime data released by the HPD in January was largely in line with the national report, which only included statistics for 2021 and 2022, and showed that the city’s total violent and non-violent crime had largely fallen to pre-pandemic levels. The exceptions were higher numbers of homicides, kidnappings, aggravated assaults, and auto thefts.

In January, HPD reported a 7 percent increase in non-violent property crimes from a year ago, including an 11 percent spike in auto-related theft, which the department said was driven in part by a spike in catalytic converter thefts.

“The overall data shows that HPD’s crime-fighting efforts are working, but there is still more to be done,” the department said in a January press release about its 2022 crime statistics.

Among other Texas cities included in the nationwide study, Arlington, Dallas, and Fort Worth saw annual declines in total reported violent crimes, while Austin, El Paso, and San Antonio saw increases. San Antonio was the only Texas city to see a spike in homicides from 2021 to 2022.