SAN ANTONIO – A councilman who wants San Antonio to hire additional police officers is pointing to the city’s results with its violent crime reduction plan as evidence of the need for them.
But not everyone’s drawing the same conclusion.
The city’s plan to combat violent street crime — murders, robberies, aggravated assaults, and deadly conduct that are not family violence-related — has been in place for three years.
In 2025, the city saw a roughly 21% reduction in both the average monthly violent crime cases and the average monthly number of victims.
One of the primary parts of the plan so far has been “hot spot” policing, in which San Antonio police focus extra attention for 60 days at a time on areas with high violent street crime. Either by highly visible shows of police presence, like flashing lights, or by having the street crimes or covert units focus on the people suspected of committing the crime.
In those hot spots, crime dropped 63%.
“It is government malpractice to look at a report like this and then not want to fund more officers to be patrolling the streets of San Antonio,” Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) said during a Tuesday briefing on the results at the Public Safety Committee.
“It just is,” Whyte said. “I mean, the data is right there.”
Whyte is one of three council members pushing for the city to continue hiring additional police officers.
Since 2023, the city has been trying to add 360 patrol officers over the course of three to five years.
According to a staffing analysis, the additional officers would allow patrol officers to spend 40% of their time responding to calls and 60% doing “proactive” policing, such checking on regular trouble spots, traffic enforcement, or patrolling for car burglars.
The city added 100 officers in Fiscal Year 2024 and another 65 in FY 2025. At one point, city staff had planned for another 65 in FY 2026, but a yawning budget deficit prompted them to scale back their plans to only recommending adding 25.
Though Whyte and others pushed for the full 65, they ended up with 40 in the final budget.
Last week, Whyte, Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9), and Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) asked for a non-binding resolution showing support for adding 65 officers in the FY 2027 budget to be placed on an A-session agenda.
So far, a vote has not yet been scheduled. Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2), Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3), Councilman Edward Mungia (D4), Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), and Councilman Ric Galvan (D6) wrote their own memo asking that the discussion take place as part of the regular budget calendar.
“We recognize the importance of ensuring that the San Antonio Police Department has the staffing necessary to serve our community effectively,” the five council members wrote. “At the same time, this is a critical period for our city as we navigate ongoing contract negotiations with the San Antonio Police Officers Association, continue evaluating efficiencies and operational needs across city departments and assess the impacts of state and federal decision-making, all within the context of a projected multimillion-dollar budget deficit.”
Michael Smith, the University of Texas at San Antonio professor of criminology and criminal justice who helped create the plan and provided the update on its progress, compared hot spot policing to ibuprofen.
Once the treatments are done, he said, crime resumes to the pre-treatment average after about 60 days.
“When the ibuprofen wears off, your headache comes back, unless you treat what’s causing your headache to begin with,” he said. “So that’s why it’s one of multiple strategies that are employed to address violent street crime."
McKee-Rodriguez, who is also part of the Public Safety Committee, latched onto that point as part of his final comments.
“So unless you create a police state in which a police is on every corner at all times, you’re not gonna achieve permanent results by adding more police officers,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
McKee-Rodriguez said focusing on more hot spots would likely reduce crime, but argued that investments in housing and mental health, and supporting non-profits and social services could as well.
“While I can appreciate the very clear and hard, fast direction of ‘hire more police and let that be the end all be all and all of our problems will be solved.’ The reality is that that is not the case,” he said. “And so we have to find a balance with very limited resources."
Whyte said he was also for a “holistic approach,” which could help prevent crime in the future, “but to prevent crime right now and take care of our citizens right now, we need more officers patrolling the streets."
The violent crime reduction plan has also included attempts to address the underlying causes of crime at two particularly troublesome spots: the Rosemont at Highland Park and the Reserve at Pecan Valley.
A third phase, focusing on deterring repeat violent offenders, is expected to begin later this year.
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