Violent crime falls 14% in Youngstown

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Overall crime in the city dropped last year, most notably the number of homicides and rapes.

Of the 28 homicides recorded in 2008, six occurred in one event, a deliberate fire on the East Side that claimed the lives of two women and four children.

In 2007, the city had 39 murders.

The numbers for 2008 reflect a 28 percent decrease.

When homicides are grouped with other violent crimes of rape, robbery and felonious assault, the drop is 14 percent, compared with the prior year. There were 47 rapes reported in 2008, compared with 73 in 2007.

The only crime to increase was motor vehicle theft, up 7 percent.

Mayor Jay Williams said he’s very pleased with the progress being made, as reflected in the statistics released Friday by the police department.

“I give a lot of credit to our safety forces, the men and women of the Youngstown Police Department and the fire department, which includes the arson investigation bureau,” Williams said.

“There’s still a lot of work that we have ahead of us — this is why I ran for office, one of the reasons I ran for office. It’s a start. What we want to see is a sustained drop in violent crime across the city.”

The mayor said credit also goes to the block watches and the residents who became more active, more engaged.

“That’s one of the most valuable tools that our officers have, is active block watches who are willing to give us information when crimes do occur so we can solve them and also provide information to help prevent crimes,” Williams said. “It’s good, and we want to keep it going.”

The mayor was asked if the decline in the city’s population had any affect on the crime rate.

“There’s probably a lot of factors that went into it, but I would think more than a drop in population would be the increased vigilance of our safety forces and our citizens,” he said. “We’ve seen a population drop in Youngstown for decades. That’s been going on for years, but we haven’t seen a corresponding or correlating drop in crime. I’m sure it was maybe a minor contributing factor, but I give more credit to the safety forces and the citizens and block watches working together.”

In 2000, the city’s population was 82,026. Last summer, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population at 73,818, a 10 percent decline.

Last year, police were paid $1.2 million in overtime, according to Kyle Miasek, deputy finance director. Of that, $470,000 was reimbursed by grants.

Williams said the grants absolutely helped stretch resources. He’s hopeful that President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who spoke highly of the COPS program, Community Oriented Policing Services, during the campaign, follow through to refund the program that puts officers on the streets.

This coming year, the mayor said he plans a site visit before committing to ShotSpotter, a technology that zeros in on the precise location of gunfire. He’s also looking into Operation Ceasefire, a program that deters gang and gun violence.

“We don’t want to become comfortable or complacent with the decline in crime,” he said. “We want it to continue and to be sustainable; that’s the ultimate goal.”

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes said he credits the work done throughout the department, the various task forces and specialty units, and block watches.

Officers are assigned to the FBI/Mahoning Valley Violent Crimes Task Force, gang or drug unit with the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force, the Crime Suppression Unit, K-9 Unit, Northside Weed & Seed and so forth.

Hughes said he’s really impressed with the decline in homicides and believes the trend will continue.