Changing homicide trend helps YPD

RELATED: • Homicide evidence never gets tossed

• Detectives say finding suspects quick is key

By JOE GORMAN

jgorman@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A change in the type as well as the pace of homicides in the millennium are helping city police clear more cases.

From 2001-2017, Youngstown recorded 451 homicides. Of those cases, 262 were solved and 189 remain unsolved, for a solve rate of about 58 percent.

According to FBI statistics for 2017, the clearance rate for homicides nationally was 61.6 percent.

Youngstown’s numbers for solving homicides, however, have been improving since the start of the new decade. From 2001-2010, the city had 289 homicides, with 155 of those being solved, a rate of 53.6 percent.

From 2011-2017, the city had 162 homicides with 107 solved, or 66 percent.

Police Chief Robin Lees and Detective Sgts. Ron Rodway and John Perdue, the two longest-serving detectives in the department, said there are several factors as to why both the number of homicides has been declining and the amount of cases being solved is increasing.

But all three also said that there are factors in solving homicides they can’t put a finger on. They said luck, either good or bad, plays a big part in a lot of police work.

Rodway and Perdue said technology is the biggest change detectives have faced, and it is for the better. They said phones, social media and video cameras are a great help in finding suspects, as well as advances in collecting DNA at crime scenes.

In the beginning of the 2000s, the city was still seeing spillover drug and gang violence from the 1990s, a decade that saw 492 people murdered in the city

because of the influx of crack cocaine.

“We were still feeling the effects of the crack wars, when there was so much random violence that it made it difficult to charge for every homicide,” Lees said.

Lees said in that time there was a core group of people committing most of the violent crime, and when they would lock someone up for a homicide there was a good chance that person was responsible for other killings.

Rodway and Perdue said detectives then had a full workload, and often there was at least one person shot per day. Now, with less shootings and homicides, detectives can spend more time on their cases.

“When you have less and less homicides, it’s easier to devote time to them,” Perdue said.

From 2001-2017, the city averaged about 26.5 homicides per year, with a high of 39 in 2007. From 2001-2010 the city averaged 28.9 homicides a year. From 2011 to 2017, the city averaged about 23.1 homicides a year, with a high of 28 in 2017. Rodway, Perdue and Lees said the city’s declining population also has a lot to do with the decrease in the homicide rate.

Richard L. Rogers, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at Youngstown State University, said Youngstown is one of several major cities in the United States that saw a meteoric rise in its homicide rates in the 1990s.

He said, however, that the city’s recent trend of declining homicides — despite a blip in 2017 when 28 homicides were recorded — should continue.

So far in 2018, Youngstown has 12 homicides. At this time last year the city had 17 homicides.

Rogers said there are several cities across the country that have seen their homicide rates increasing slowly but Youngstown’s rate has continued to decline.

One of the reasons for declining homicide rates across the country is improved police tactics, such as community policing and paying attention to “hot spots,” or areas known for high rates of gun crime, Rogers said.

Youngstown police operate a Community Police Unit with one officer assigned to each of the city’s seven wards, They work with neighborhood groups and residents to address quality of life issues or complaints that would often tie up a patrol car, which frees up officers on a regular patrol beat to answer more calls and also to be more proactive when on patrol.

Rogers also said that surveillance cameras, not just at businesses but in private homes, also cut down on homicides. Rodway said that is a big help for investigators also.

“It seems like everyone has cameras on their buildings,” Rodway said.

In Youngstown, Rogers said, demographics are also factor because the population is aging and there is a decline of males between 18 and 25, which is the prime age group of people who commit crimes.

Also, the types of homicides are changing in the city. Police are seeing more domestic related homicides and less gang and drug related homicides, which are easier to solve. People are more willing to talk in a domestic homicide because there is less fear of retaliation, Perdue said; and it’s easier to zero in on a suspect, Rodway said.

“There’s not a lot of surprises,” Rodway said.

Lees said that some of those homicides are not so much domestic but the result of some sort of feud. That makes it easier for detectives to find potential witnesses and suspects because they can find people who know about the feud to talk to.

Technology is also a great help for investigators. Perdue said because of cell phone technology, detectives can trace the movements of a suspect because of phone software.

Youngstown police have eight detectives who work homicide cases as well as two supervisors. Detectives are split into two-man teams. Each week one team and a supervisor are on call if there is a homicide after regular business hours. If they are called out, the two-man team and the supervisor on call respond, as well as at least one officer from the department’s crime lab, which collects and records evidence at crime scenes.

In some cases, a second crime lab member may be called out if a scene is large or there are multiple victims.

Late June 18 and early June 19, police responded to two homicides within about 35 minutes of each other.

With one team of detectives and a supervisor already on Wilson Avenue investigating the shooting death of Oscar Caywood at about 11:30 p.m., a second man, Brandon Wylie, 30, was found shot to death just after midnight on Plazaview Court.

In that case, a second set of detectives, another supervisor and another member of the crime lab were called out.

Two men are charged with Caywood’s death.

Police have not made an arrest in the Wylie case but they do have a suspect.