Austin, TX

Over the 90-day measurement window, Austin's incident data recorded 20,544 total offenses across all categories. The two highest-volume categories were 'other' (5,772 incidents, 28% of the total) and theft (3,443 incidents, 17%), followed by assault (2,606, 13%) and burglary (2,111, 10%). Homicide, by contrast, accounted for just 11 recorded incidents, less than 1% of the total. The most recent 30-day delta shows assault up 18%, motor vehicle theft up 15%, and fraud up 12%, while theft is down 12% and burglary down 10%; homicide shows a 30-day delta of negative 80%, though that figure reflects movement off a very small baseline and should be read cautiously. Coverage across 87 total stories (53 national, 34 local) did not mirror this distribution in either scope.

National outlets devoted 40 of 53 stories (75% of national coverage) to homicide, a category representing under 1% of measured incidents, and 11 stories (21%) to assault, which is proportionally closer to its 13% measured share but still elevated relative to the data. National coverage gave zero stories to theft, burglary, drugs, disorder, vandalism, motor vehicle theft, sex offenses, fraud, robbery, or arson, categories that together account for roughly 60% of all measured incidents. Local outlets (34 stories) produced a more distributed picture: 21 homicide stories (62% of local coverage) still over-represent that category relative to the data, but local reporters also filed on robbery (3 stories), theft (2), assault (2), and single stories on motor vehicle theft, sex offenses, drugs, and burglary. Headlines such as KXAN's 'Welfare check leads to 5th homicide in two weeks, 70-year-old found dead with obvious trauma' (June 25, 2026) and KTBC's 'Austin homicides: APD investigating 5 cases within 2 weeks' (June 24, 2026) illustrate how a short cluster of lethal-violence incidents can drive an outsized share of both local and national story counts even when the measured homicide total remains in the single digits.

The clearest divergence between national and local framing is the near-total absence of property crime in national coverage: theft at 3,443 incidents received zero national stories versus two local stories, burglary at 2,111 incidents received zero national stories versus one local story, and motor vehicle theft at 746 incidents received zero national stories versus one local story. Local coverage is a closer but still imperfect mirror: robbery received 3 local stories against only 190 measured incidents (9% of local coverage versus 1% of measured share), suggesting editorial interest in specific high-profile robbery cases, including APD public-assistance requests such as 'APD asks for help finding suspect in Walgreens robbery in central Austin' (KXAN, June 26, 2026). Disorder (1,553 incidents) and vandalism (1,102 incidents) received zero stories from either scope. The data do not support a verdict on whether Austin crime is rising or falling in aggregate; category-level deltas move in different directions simultaneously, and coverage patterns reflect editorial and proximity judgments rather than incident volume.

Each category’s share of measured incidents, national/cable coverage, and local coverage over the same ~90-day window.

53 national stories · 34 local stories in window

• KXAN NBC Austin1 dead after overnight shooting in Austin’s Colony
• KTBC FOX7 AustinMan fatally shot inside Austin's Colony home; suspect in custody
• KXAN NBC AustinAPD asks for help finding suspect in Walgreens robbery in central Austin
• KXAN NBC AustinAPD asks for help finding man connected to robbery outside East 6th night club
• KXAN NBC AustinMan sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for fentanyl death
• KXAN NBC AustinAustin ‘serial killer’ serving life sentence charged with child porn possession
• KXAN NBC AustinWelfare check leads to 5th homicide in two weeks, 70-year-old found dead with ‘obvious trauma’
• KTBC FOX7 AustinAustin homicides: APD investigating 5 cases within 2 weeks