Amarillo Is One Of The Most Dangerous Cities In Texas

Living in Amarillo, we hear all about the different crime that takes place. Many reports of theft, assaults, and lately shootings of some sort. It's not something that exactly makes us sleep well at night. You never know when your cars are being broken into, or when some yahoo wants to go shooting up a street.

Amarillo has long been known as one of the Texas cities known for the amount of crime inside it, and it's something that has a tendency to keep people away from moving here. Sure, we've seen growth lately, but it could've been a whole lot more growth.

Well, the latest rankings are out for 2024, and I can tell you they aren't going to change any perceptions about our fair city. However, I will say that we dropped down the list a bit and got ourselves out of the top 5, so there is definitely something to be happy about.

We checked in at number six on the list of most dangerous cities in Texas. Cities behind us? How about Houston checking in at number 10 on the list. That's a big improvement for them. Mesquite, Pasadena, and Waco are numbers nine, eight, and seven respectively.

So why did we end up at number six on the list? It goes back to that property crime/theft we talked about earlier. We had 35 property crimes reported per 1,000 residents in 2023 which is a big reason for landing inside the top 10. The good news? Our violent crime is down, so we'll take that as a win.

The most dangerous neighborhoods according to the survey were the west side of Amarillo, the Soncy neigborhood, and SE Amarillo near Tradewind Airport. As for the safest neighborhoods? Those include Puckett, Sleepy Hollow, South Georgia, City View, and The Colonies.

So who is considered the most dangerous city in Texas? That dubious honor belongs to our neighbors to the south. Yes, Lubbock checked in at number one on the list, and it was a mix of conditions that led to that designation.

Their property crime/theft rate is higher than ours at 45 property crimes per 1,000 residents, but it was the violent crime that pushed it to the top. 11.18 violent crimes per 1,000 residents were reported in 2023 which is nearly three times the average in Texas.