New Braunfels Security for a River Town That Became a Small City

New Braunfels was founded on March 21, 1845, by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, who led the Adelsverein, a society of German nobles that hoped to plant a new Germany on land grants from the Republic of Texas. He picked a site near where the Comal River meets the Guadalupe and named it for the family seat, Braunfels, on the Lahn River.

A Texas historical marker calls the Comal the shortest large-volume river in the United States, and both rivers still shape daily life here. Summer brings tubers, rental vans, and a lot of cars parked along the water. Comal County was created in 1846, and the city now spills across the line into Guadalupe County, which is why two county names appear on some property records in town.

The 2020 Census counted 90,403 people in New Braunfels. The Census Bureau’s estimate for July 2023 was 110,958. That is more than 20,000 additional residents in about three years, which is a bigger jump than many Texas towns’ entire populations. National rankings of fast-growing cities move around from year to year, and in Community Impact’s reading of the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 estimates, New Braunfels ranked 73rd among cities of 20,000 or more, so we will skip the superlatives and stick with the plain count.

Growth that fast changes a street’s character. Rooftops go up on former pasture, and new subdivisions fill with families who have not yet met. Construction sites invite their own kind of theft, from copper wire to appliances waiting for installation. For a new homeowner, the move-in week is the right time to install a home security system, before the boxes in the garage advertise what is inside.

Visitors are good for business and harder on parked cars. A full summer weekend fills lots and side streets near the rivers with vehicles whose owners are floating somewhere downstream, wallets and phones left in the console. Thieves who work those streets need only a minute and a reason to believe something is inside.

For residents, the lesson travels home. A truck in the driveway with a toolbox in the bed, or a car left unlocked overnight, is the same opportunity with a shorter walk. A camera covering the driveway records anyone who tries a handle, and a video doorbell catches the same visitor on the way back up the walk. Neither costs you anything in convenience once it is installed.

Businesses near the water feel the season too. A restaurant, an outfitter, or a shop that runs flat out from May to September may sit quiet for long stretches in winter, with inventory and equipment inside. Commercial video surveillance with cameras on the loading door, the lot, and the register lets an owner review the night from a phone over coffee, and monitored entry sensors make sure someone is notified the moment a rear door opens after hours, not the next morning.

About 65 percent of occupied homes in New Braunfels are lived in by their owners, according to the Census Bureau. That leaves roughly a third rented, plus whatever short-term rentals change guests every few days. Every turnover is a chance for a key to leave with the wrong person.

Smart locks solve that by replacing keys with codes. A host issues a code for the length of a stay, and it expires at checkout. A landlord changes a code between tenants instead of paying a locksmith. Texas law also sets specific security device requirements for residential leases, which our guide to the Texas rental security device law explains in plain English.

San Antonio Protection Services is a locally owned company, licensed by the Texas DPS Private Security Bureau under license B16898 and in business since 2010. New Braunfels is a short drive up Interstate 35 for our technicians. We walk the property with you, check what can be seen from the street and the alley, and test whatever equipment is already in place.

Then you receive a written plan with options, priced in person rather than pushed on a doorstep. If you go ahead, we install the system, teach everyone in the house to use it, and connect it to 24/7 monitoring from a UL-listed central station. The first step is a free security assessment.