43
YPD crime stats show slight decrease in ‘15
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Although almost all crime categories showed slight increases in 2015, statistics show a decrease in burglaries has given the city a reduced crime rate overall for the second-straight year.
The city recorded 3,616 Part 1 crimes in 2015. These crimes are categorized as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, auto theft and arson.
In 2014, the city recorded 3,718 Part 1 crimes – down from 2013, when the city recorded 4,226 such crimes.
In 2015, Youngstown police recorded 1,141 burglaries, a decrease from 2014, which saw 1,397 burglaries; and 2013, which saw 1,589 burglaries.
Categories that increased in 2015 were homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, auto theft, theft and arson.
Capt. Brad Blackburn, who heads the detective bureau, which investigates burglaries, said most burglaries in the city are not carried out by professionals, but rather individuals or loose groups of two or three people.
Blackburn also said most burglaries are committed by people who know their victims. He said they know where the victims keep valuables or when they will be away from their home. He said burglaries are one of the hardest crimes to solve because they often occur when no witnesses are around.
“They’re often crimes of opportunity,” Blackburn said. “A lot of times, it’s someone they know.”
Among the crimes that increased were homicides, as the city saw 23 in 2015, compared with 20 in 2014 and 21 in 2013. Of those 23 slayings in 2015, detectives have solved 17.
In 2016, the city has seen six homicides, with two solved and suspects in two others.
The clearance rate for homicides in 2015 was about 75 percent, which is above the national FBI average clearance rate of 64.1 percent.
Police Chief Robin Lees said the work of his detectives investigating homicides is one of the things the department can hang its hat on, along with proactive police work by the patrol division as it absorbs several new hires over the past two years. He acknowledged there is still more work to do.
“We’re working harder to try and do better, to have a similar impact like we’ve had on burglaries,” Lees said.
Lees also said he hopes his Community Police Unit, formed last year, can have a greater impact on crime by sticking to the mantra “Little things can become big things.” Besides crime sweeps in certain neighborhoods, members of the unit also are enforcing the city’s new quality-of-life ordinance this year. Lees said he hopes that can make an impact because cutting down on issues such as blight could have an effect on the crime rate.
Lees also said he wants to expand the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence this year to hopefully make more of a dent in the crime rate. CIRV offers a mixture of social-service help to people it deems at risk for a criminal lifestyle.