How many burglaries does Houston have?

HPD's own December 2025 operational summary reports 13,547 burglaries in 2024 and 11,343 in 2025, a fall of about 16 percent. HPD's broader crimes against property category was 140,613 in 2024 and 130,912 in 2025. The 2025 burglary count is roughly 486 per 100,000 residents, roughly twice the verified national rate of about 232. The 2025 figures are provisional and subject to revision.

Do I need an alarm permit in Houston?

Yes. The City of Houston Alarm Administration issues burglar and panic alarm permits, and a residential burglar alarm permit costs $50.00 for a 12 month period. Without a valid permit, the city charges $116.75 for each residential burglar alarm notification it receives.

What does a false alarm cost in Houston?

A residential permit holder gets three free false burglar alarms in the 12 month permit period. The 4th and 5th cost $50 each, the 6th and 7th cost $75, and the 8th and beyond cost $100. False panic or holdup alarms are far more expensive, starting at $140.09 for the second one.

Can Houston revoke my alarm permit?

Yes. More than seven false burglar alarms in the preceding 12 months is grounds for revocation, as is failing to pay fees within 60 days of notice. Revocation for excessive false alarms requires an administrative hearing to reverse, while revocation for unpaid amounts is reinstated automatically on payment.

Home Security in Houston: Burglary Numbers, Alarm Permit Rules, and Costs

The Houston Police Department's own December 2025 operational summary reports 13,547 burglaries in 2024 and 11,343 in 2025, a fall of about 16 percent. On HPD's own city population estimate, the 2025 count works out to roughly 486 per 100,000 residents, roughly twice the verified national burglary rate of about 232 per 100,000. Houston requires a burglar alarm permit, $50 a year for a residence, and charges a penalty for every alarm notification from an unpermitted system, so the permit is the first thing to get right.

Figures researched 2026-08-19; each source below carries its access date. Prices change; treat any price here as "as of" its date.

Burglary and property crime in Houston

The Houston Police Department publishes its own NIBRS counts in a monthly operational summary produced by its Office of Planning and Data Governance. We use HPD's published figures here rather than a total derived by summing monthly counts out of the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, because that derived method put 2024 burglary about 11 percent higher than HPD's own number and implied a rise in 2024 that HPD's own data does not show.

Offense	2023	2024	2025
Burglary (NIBRS code 220)	13,389	13,547	11,343

Burglary was essentially flat between 2023 and 2024, then fell about 16 percent in 2025. HPD's broader crimes against property category went from 140,613 in 2024 to 130,912 in 2025, down about 7 percent. That category is wider than the FBI's property crime index, since it takes in fraud, vandalism, and similar offenses, so it is not comparable to a property crime total quoted for another city.

On HPD's own city population estimate of 2,333,346 for 2025, the 2025 burglary count works out to roughly 486 per 100,000 residents. The verified national burglary rate is roughly 232 per 100,000, so Houston runs at roughly twice the national figure. One year of decline is not a trend, and 2025 figures are provisional and subject to revision as agencies resubmit data, so treat the 2025 line as the current published number rather than a final one.

Houston requires an alarm permit, and unpermitted alarms are billed

The City of Houston Alarm Administration publishes the ordinance summary, and the numbers are specific. A residential burglar alarm permit costs $50.00 and covers a 12 month permit period. An administrative fee of $33.56 applies to any permit or service where the fee exceeds $50.00, which is why commercial permits carry it and the flat $50 residential permit does not.

Within the 12 month permit period a residential permit holder gets three free false burglar alarms and one free false panic or holdup alarm. After that, the burglar alarm ladder is $50 for the 4th and 5th, $75 for the 6th and 7th, $100 for the 8th, and $100 for each additional one. The panic and holdup ladder is far steeper for a residence: $140.09 for the 2nd, $280.20 for the 3rd, $420.29 for the 4th, and $560.39 for the 5th and each additional one. Fees are assessed where police respond to the alarm site within 65 minutes of notification.

The penalty for having no permit at all is the part most people miss. If the Houston Emergency Center or the police department receives an alarm notification from a system without a valid permit, the subscriber is charged $116.75 for each residential burglar alarm notification and $308.21 for each residential panic or holdup notification, whether or not the alarm turns out to be false. More than seven false burglar alarms in the preceding 12 months triggers revocation, and getting reinstated requires an administrative hearing. Unpaid penalties pick up a collection fee of 30 percent on the 61st day after they are due.

What home security costs in Houston

Equipment and monitoring are priced nationally. What changes locally is the permit and false alarm overhead described above. As of August 2026, SimpliSafe's published monitoring plans run 33 cents a day for self monitoring with camera recordings (about $10 a month), 76 cents a day for Standard professional monitoring (about $23 a month), $1.10 a day for Core (about $33 a month), and $1.66 to $2.66 a day for the Pro and Pro Plus tiers. Those are list prices from SimpliSafe's own plan page rather than promotional rates. SimpliSafe was running an Anniversary Sale that was ending around this date, so a lower number quoted elsewhere is probably a promotion with an expiry attached, and it is worth checking what the price reverts to. Other national providers ladder similarly.

Home security cost per month breaks down the full annual cost stack including equipment, monitoring, and the extras that get added later, and cheapest professional monitoring ranks the budget monitored plans by published pricing. If you are still deciding whether to pay for dispatch at all, is professional monitoring worth it walks the trade-off, and DIY vs professional monitoring cost does the arithmetic over a few years.

If you decide monitoring is worth paying for, our short questionnaire at /quote fetches real quotes from professional monitoring providers for your address. Given Houston's unpermitted alarm penalties, it is fair to ask each provider to confirm they will file your permit and carry the correct permit number to the dispatcher.

A sensible setup for a Houston home

Prevention first, because it is free and it works on the largest share of attempts. Deadbolts with reinforced strike plates, locks on ground floor windows, a garage door that is actually closed, and lighting on the approaches. Houston's housing stock leans single story and detached, which means more ground floor openings per home than in a stacked-density city, so the sensor count runs higher.

Then detection: entry sensors on every ground floor door and the windows a person could reach without a ladder, at least one motion sensor covering the main circulation path, and a siren loud enough to be heard from the street. If you have dogs, use pet-friendly motion sensors. Pets are a leading cause of false alarms, and in Houston every false alarm past the third one has a dollar figure attached.

Visible deterrence helps at the margin and the evidence is mixed rather than magical; do security signs deter burglars covers what the research actually supports. If you would rather skip monitoring, best self-monitored systems with no monthly fee covers the no-subscription route, with the honest caveat that you become the response plan and nobody calls police on your behalf while you are asleep or on a plane. Confirm with the Alarm Administration how the permit rules apply to an audible system with no monitoring company attached, since the ordinance is written around alarm notifications reaching the city.

Frequently asked questions

How many burglaries does Houston have?: HPD's own December 2025 operational summary reports 13,547 burglaries in 2024 and 11,343 in 2025, a fall of about 16 percent. HPD's broader crimes against property category was 140,613 in 2024 and 130,912 in 2025. The 2025 burglary count is roughly 486 per 100,000 residents, roughly twice the verified national rate of about 232. The 2025 figures are provisional and subject to revision.
Do I need an alarm permit in Houston?: Yes. The City of Houston Alarm Administration issues burglar and panic alarm permits, and a residential burglar alarm permit costs $50.00 for a 12 month period. Without a valid permit, the city charges $116.75 for each residential burglar alarm notification it receives.
What does a false alarm cost in Houston?: A residential permit holder gets three free false burglar alarms in the 12 month permit period. The 4th and 5th cost $50 each, the 6th and 7th cost $75, and the 8th and beyond cost $100. False panic or holdup alarms are far more expensive, starting at $140.09 for the second one.
Can Houston revoke my alarm permit?: Yes. More than seven false burglar alarms in the preceding 12 months is grounds for revocation, as is failing to pay fees within 60 days of notice. Revocation for excessive false alarms requires an administrative hearing to reverse, while revocation for unpaid amounts is reinstated automatically on payment.

Sources

Houston Police Department burglary (NIBRS code 220) 11,343 in 2025 against 13,547 in 2024, a fall of 16.3 percent; total crimes against property 130,912 in 2025 against 140,613 in 2024; HPD city population estimate 2,333,346 for 2025: https://www.houstontx.gov/police/department_reports/operational_summary/NIBRS_MonthlyOperationalSummary_Dec25.pdf (accessed 2026-08-19)
Houston Police Department NIBRS yearly cases, burglary and breaking and entering 13,389 offenses in 2023: https://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/493390fd87b743e8866e37a993b43c5f (accessed 2026-08-19)
National burglary rate of roughly 232 per 100,000 residents (231.9): https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend (accessed 2026-08-19)
Houston residential burglar alarm permit $50.00 for a 12 month period; $33.56 administrative fee on fees over $50.00; three free false burglar alarms and one free false panic alarm; $50 for 4th and 5th, $75 for 6th and 7th, $100 for 8th and each additional; residential panic ladder $140.09 / $280.20 / $420.29 / $560.39; unpermitted residential burglar alarm notification $116.75 and panic $308.21; 65 minute response condition; revocation over seven false burglar alarms in 12 months; 30 percent collection fee after 61 days: https://www.houstonburglaralarmpermits.org/City/Houston/OrdinanceAtGlance.html (accessed 2026-08-19)
City of Houston Administration and Regulatory Affairs burglar and panic alarm permit page, which directs applicants to apply online at www.houstonburglaralarmpermits.org: https://www.houstontx.gov/ara/rp/burglarandpanicalarms.html (accessed 2026-08-19)
SimpliSafe published monitoring plan prices: 33 cents/day self monitoring with camera recordings, 76 cents/day Standard, $1.10/day Core, $1.66 to $2.66/day Pro and Pro Plus, as of August 2026: https://support.simplisafe.com/pages/monitoring-plans (accessed 2026-08-19)