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Amarillo police report shows declines in 2024 crimes; council questions signal timing after resident’s allegation
Summary
Chief Johnson reported a 12.5% drop in Part One crimes in 2024 and identified hotspot areas; a resident accused the city of setting short signal intervals to increase crash counts for grants, a claim staff and consultants disputed. Council directed staff to return with intersection‑specific data.
Amarillo Police Chief Johnson presented year‑end data showing a drop in Part One crimes in 2024 and outlined technology and enforcement initiatives, while a resident’s challenge about traffic‑signal timing prompted staff to promise detailed follow‑up.
Chief Johnson said the department’s authorized strength is 378 officers and that 2024 saw a 12.5 percent reduction in Part One crimes compared with 2023: violent crime fell about 5.3 percent and property crime fell about 14.2 percent. He credited tools including license plate readers for an increase in stolen‑vehicle recoveries, citing 164 recoveries in 2024 tied to LPR hits.
The chief and staff also presented hotspot maps showing concentrated violent‑crime activity in the city’s PSN Zone and listed proactive units assigned to address those areas.
In a separate traffic briefing, Donnie Hooper reported 20 fatal crashes citywide in 2024 out of 6,084 total wrecks (under 0.5 percent) and said speed was a contributing factor in about half of fatal controlled‑intersection crashes. Allen Harter, director of traffic engineering, explained standards from the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD): the minimum yellow interval is three seconds (and controllers in Amarillo cannot be programmed below three seconds) and a typical minimum red clearance (all‑red) is one second, increasing with intersection width.
Resident Mike Fiser told the council he believed signal clearance timing had been shortened at several intersections and suggested, without presenting documented proof at the meeting, that crash counts could be used to justify grant money. Fiser said he would provide video evidence; staff invited him to do so and committed to analyze intersection‑specific timing for problem locations such as 45th and Soncy.
Consultants and staff rejected any suggestion that the city would intentionally worsen safety to chase grants. A consultant in the Safe Streets presentation said some federal program scoring favors areas with higher crash severity but stressed that professional ethics prevent “cooking the books” and that grant programs do not require intentionally worsening safety outcomes.
Council directed traffic staff to return with analytical data for specific intersections, options for recalibrating yellow and red clearance intervals where warranted, and a clear explanation of grant criteria and any ties to crash data. No policy change or vote occurred at this meeting.
