Youngstown crime down for third straight year

February 28, 2015 at 12:10a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Statistics provided by the Youngstown Police Department show that crime in the city is down for the third-straight year.

In 2014, 3,718 crimes were reported or investigated, down from 4,226 in 2013, a decrease of 508 crimes — also down from 2012, when 4,538 crimes were reported or investigated.

The trend downward has been in all major categories the department tracks except for auto theft, when there was an increase of 34 auto thefts in 2013 from 2012. For 2014, however, the number of auto thefts dropped by 80 as 315 were reported as compared with 395 in 2013.

Police Chief Robin Lees said there were three main reasons for the continuation of the trend in 2014, his first year as chief.

Lees said the city’s patrol division is very proactive, often preventing crimes by getting guns and drugs off the streets through traffic stops or other contacts.

“It’s hard to put a number on that,” Lees said.

Lees also credited the city’s detective bureau for its work in reducing the number of homicides from 27 two years ago to 20 in 2014. Lees said that in homicide investigations last year, detectives were able to make quick arrests that prevented spinoff or retaliation violence that could have led to other slayings and shootings.

Lees pointed to the slaying of Maurise Kerns on April 1 and an August homicide on Winona Avenue where a 17-year-old was killed during a brawl between two warring families.

In the Kerns case, detectives within 24 hours had four people behind bars, including two suspects in Kerns’ death, a woman who lured Kerns to the place where he was shot and a man associated with the suspects who was carrying a gun when he was arrested.

In the Winona Avenue case, 15 people were taken into custody within a week of the crime and charged with offenses ranging from involuntary manslaughter to aggravated riot to murder.

Lees also credited the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence program, or CIRV, as starting to become a major force to reduce crime. Lees said CIRV identifies people, mostly youths, who are at risk for committing crimes, and offers them a range of programs to help them get an education or a job or assistance so they can stay out of trouble.

For 2105, CIRV has expanded, with CIRV director Guy Burney being given a vehicle so he can get around the city more often.

Councilman Nathaniel Pinkard, D-3rd Ward, who is the president of council’s safety committee and a former police chief for Mill Creek MetroParks police, said the police officers are to be credited for the downturn because of the work they do on the streets.

He also credited the leadership of Lees and former Chief Rod Foley, who is now a captain and was replaced by Lees when Mayor John McNally took office at the beginning of 2014.

Lees also will begin a new community police initiative later in the year. Under that plan, veteran patrol officers will be assigned to specific wards where they will be able to attend block-watch meetings or have daily briefings with residents or the ward’s council representative. Those officers will then be able to focus exclusively on trouble spots in those neighborhoods, instead of just riding through them on patrol or answering calls for service there.

Pinkard also said he thinks CIRV has been an important component in lowering the city’s crime rate.

“That relationship we began with them more than three years ago is starting to pay off,” Pinkard said.

Pinkard also said he looks forward to Lees’ new community police initiative. He said that will be an effective way of dealing with many of the crime and blight complaints he deals with as a councilman. Plus, it puts officers in the community on a more regular basis.

“It’s a win-win for the city of Youngstown,” Pinkard said.