SAN ANTONIO – When Albino Cruz moved into the Rosemont at Highland Park Apartments in 2024, he quickly had second thoughts.
“Second week was nothing but gunshots — about three or four times in one month,” he said.
“I almost moved out because I didn’t think it was like that. The apartments, they look nice on the outside, but it’s the people that live on the inside. You never know."
But he says things have changed since then. In his back corner of the complex, “you don’t hear no more gunshots — maybe in the front."
The apartment complex, owned and managed by Opportunity Home San Antonio on Rigsby Avenue, near the intersection with Clark Avenue, could be seen as a sign of progress under its violent crime reduction plan.
San Antonio has been following the violent crime reduction plan, designed by University of Texas at San Antonio criminologists, since 2023.
At a Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday, council members heard that violent street crime — non-family violence-related cases of murders, robberies, aggravated assaults and deadly conduct — was down 21% across the city in 2025 compared to the year before, and down 9.5% in the three years since starting the plan, compared to the three years before.
But how does progress look at a more local level?
Much of the efforts so far have revolved around tackling “hot spots” of violent crime with either highly visible police presence or having the street crimes or covert units focus on the people suspected of driving crime in the area. The extra attention lasts for 60 days at a time, and the 2025 statistics showed even bigger drops in crime in those areas.
That tactic is just “phase one” of the plan, though. The city has also taken two stabs so far at “phase two,” what the plans calls “problem-oriented place based policing.”
The approach calls for focusing attentions on reducing violence and the underlying conditions that create violent places.
Maria Vargas-Yates, director of the city’s Integrated Community Safety Office, said the underlying principle is “to improve the quality of life at the locations, connect residents to services they need, whether it’s job and education training, youth activity engagement for their children, emergency needs, such as if they’re being evicted, or if they are having issues at the location, such as code issues that they like help addressing.”
The Rosemont was the first location chosen for the approach, with treatment starting in June 2024.
Parked in the complex’s lot midday Thursday, SAPD SAFFE Officer Robert Dupee has been through the entire process, from early hot spot policing to the relative calm of the complex now.
The area went from “35 to 40 calls a weekend to two within a few months once I started making my presence known, making other officers’ presence known, putting it out there saying, ‘Hey, dog watch officers, we need you out here. Start driving around,’” Dupee said.
Phase two included using street crime and undercover officers in “blacked out” vehicles trying to catch people “doing no good,” he said.
There are also SAPD cameras on site, but it’s not only about security through police action.
A UTSA report from February 2025 lays out other steps, like fixed lighting and fencing, and holding community events on the property.
“Once we started getting animal control out here, CPS out here, all the other entities out here, and utilizing the resources that we have on our side, on the city side — and then also having that management and their legal team to work with the evictions of the people that needed to be evicted and those issues — once that started, it just blew up,” Dupee said.
The same UTSA report noted decreases in violent offenses, all calls for service, calls for service for trespasses, and calls for service for violent offenses at the property from June to December of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
However, the report found the number of family violence incidents and victims associated with family violence increased.
UTSA has not yet released a final report for 2025.
In his presentation the Public Safety Committee on Tuesday, the plan’s co-author, UTSA professor Michael Smith, told council members the plan’s strategies are not targeted at family violence.
Dupee sees the Rosemont as a success, crediting it to a “combined effort” between police, city entities, and the property management.
“I think it can stay beautiful as long as everybody cares. Once they stop caring, you’re going to see that riffraff come back,” he said.
The city plans to launch “phase three” of its crime plan by the end of the year — a “carrot and stick” approach for engaging with repeat violent offenders.
On one hand, they would be offered help accessing benefits and services. On the other, Vargas-Yates said, would be the city “working with all of our resources to ensure it’s a swift and appropriately severe punishment” if they commit another crime.
“So it’s up to them to make a choice,” she said. “We’re going to present them a choice.”
The city is working to identify a nonprofit partner to provide some of the services. Staff is considering proposals now and will present recommendations to council members in late April.
The city expects to begin any contracts in June and start its “focused deterrence” program in late 2026.
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