Homicides in Youngstown overshadow crime rate drop

The Youngstown Police Department, the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are joining forces to launch an aggressive crime-fighting campaign this summer.

Given that the city has recorded more homicides so far this year compared with the same period last year, the new crime suppression unit is timely and necessary.

Members of the unit will be on the streets overnight when criminals tend to operate, with orders to be proactive.

There is every reason to believe the campaign will succeed in reducing the homicide rate. That’s because Youngstown has already launched saturation patrols. City police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol are involved in traffic interdiction, staggering their times and locations.

In addition, officers have been assigned to work gang details.

“We have set in place a lot of community-based police policies,” says police Chief Jimmy Hughes. “Each quarter we have seen a reduction. I credit a lot of the decreases to the residents in the communities trying to get rid of some of those bad quality-of-life issues.”

Overall decline

Indeed, for the first three months of this year, the city overall crime rate declined by 12 percent compared with the same period last year.

Rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries and thefts were down, but the nine homicides in the first three months of last year have been surpassed.

It is important to note, however, that this year’s count includes an intentionally set house fire that claimed the lives of six.

Mayor Jay Williams is right in noting that such a violent act is unusual. But Williams also contends that while the overall drop in crime is a step in the right direction, it’s not enough.

“I’m most concerned about sustainability,” he says. “I want to sustain the drop.”

And the city of Youngstown will — if all law-abiding residents serve as the eyes and ears for law enforcement.

Neighborhood crime watch units have become an important tool in the crime-fighting campaign, but a street-by-street effort is essential.