Overall crime in Warren dropped in ’08

The police chief said the decline wasn’t large enough to call it a significant trend.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Overall crime was down 7 percent in the city in 2008 compared to 2007, with homicides dropping 50 percent from 12 to 6, the Warren Police Department reports.

The six-homicide count in 2008 is similar to the numbers of homicides in individual years between 2001 and 2006, when there were either five, six or seven. The year 2007 was an anomaly, in that its homicide count was about double the numbers recorded in years during the rest of the decade, said Capt. Tim Bowers of the Warren Police Department.

Chief John Mandopoulos said he couldn’t pinpoint any explanation for the 2007 spike either.

As for the overall drop in 2008, it is not large enough to call it a significant trend, he said. What improvement there may be should be credited to the neighborhood watch groups and area ministers for their efforts to reduce crime, he said.

He noted that the department did increase by four officers in April, when the department reached a staffing level of 82. On Jan. 1, the department’s staffing number dropped to 61 because of financial difficulties and a budget cut.

In the report, prepared for FBI for inclusion in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, the department says there were 39 forcible rapes in 2008, a 17 percent drop from 47 in 2007.

Robbery was also down 13 percent, burglary down 3 percent and thefts of other kinds down 17 percent.

Of the six categories of crime reported to the federal government, only assault saw an increase, with 1,054 crimes being reported, a 6 percent increase over 2007.

The number of crimes in all six categories was 3,318, down 7 percent from 3,567 a year earlier.

The percentage of crimes in which police made an arrest increased for homicide and rape, with homicide arrests rising from 50 percent in 2007 to 67 percent in 2008, and rape arrests rising from 21 percent to 28 percent.

Mandopoulos noted that the arrest rate for homicides is now essentially the same for 2007 and 2008 because there has been an arrest in a 2007 double homicide.

Norris A. Mills, 42, walked into the Warren Police Department in December and confessed to killing Andrea Reynolds, 30, and her uncle, John Freeman Jr., 50, at their front Street home in June 2007.

From 2007 to 2008, robbery arrests dropped from 17 percent of cases to 15 percent, assault arrests dropped from 24 percent of cases to 21 percent, burglary arrests dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent, and arrests for other kinds of thefts dropped from 8 percent to 5 percent.

Mandopoulos said he fears that the percentage of cases cleared by arrest is likely to drop in 2009, with his department having fewer patrolman on the streets.

Among the homicides in 2008 was the killing of Fred DeVengencie, 90, one of the owners of Freddie’s Diner on North Park Avenue. DeVengencie was shot to death Aug. 12 during a robbery. Ardeed I. Mitchell, 28, of Youngstown, is charged in his death.

Also killed in Warren last year was David Petrosky, 55, who was fatally wounded during an alleged robbery at his Hall Street home on Nov. 10. Christopher Moore, 31, of Roosevelt Street, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death.