Homicides drop in Youngstown

Cleveland also saw fewer homicides in 2008.

CLEVELAND (AP) — More officers and fewer guns on the city’s streets in 2008 contributed to a 24 percent drop in homicides even as other major Ohio cities saw increases in killings, officials said.

Cleveland recorded 102 homicides in the year just ended, down from a 13-year high of 134 in 2007. Killings involving firearms fell about 20 percent during 2008, a year that began with Mayor Frank Jackson launching a crackdown against illegal guns, particularly in high-crime areas.

Police seized more than 1,100 guns, and Jackson credited that effort and the hiring of 150 officers for the reduction in homicides. But the mayor wasn’t celebrating the numbers.

“We’re very disappointed,” Jackson said. “If one person gets killed, it’s a problem. These are not just statistics. Somebody cared about these people.”

It was the fourth straight year, however, the number of Cleveland killings was in the triple digits.

In Youngstown, the homicide rate dropped 28 percent, from 39 in 2007 to 28 in 2008.

Mayor Jay Williams told The Vindicator last week, “There’s been a concerted and ongoing effort made to drive the numbers down, and that’s been evidenced by what we’ve see this year. We are committed to redoubling our efforts [in 2009]. Crime going down is good; crime staying down is better.”

Toledo saw a 54 percent spike in homicides, from 13 in 2007 to 20 last year. Cincinnati had a slight increase, while Columbus police reported 108 homicides in 2008, up 37 percent from the 79 recorded the previous year.

“This is a bad year,” Columbus police Cmdr. Richard Bash said. “It’s extremely serious, in all honesty. We have a lot of victims and victims’ families that are devastated.”

Police attributed the jump in killings to a rise in gang violence. However, they also said the 2007 homicide rate was atypically low, making the 2008 number look all the more grim.

The increase in Toledo followed 2007’s lowest homicide total in more than 40 years. Fluctuation has been the norm in cities across the country, with homicide rates also up in New York City, Pittsburgh and Chicago but down in Detroit, Philadelphia and Miami.

Officials and residents in Cleveland want to keep killings on the decline.

The city needs to determine what worked well in 2008 and work harder in the new year, said Councilman Kevin Conwell, chairman of the city council’s Public Safety Committee.

Nina Swerdlow, one of the leaders of a block club in the Tremont neighborhood near downtown, said police are responding faster to trouble calls and that residents have noticed crime is going down.

“It would be nice if we could eliminate it even more,” Swerdlow said.