Summer is often a time when violent crime spikes as youths free from school get into trouble on the streets, but this summer homicides, robberies and assaults are down to a several-year low, city officials said Wednesday. Mayor Vince Gray and police Chief Cathy Lanier credited the dip to a multi-agency approach that not only flooded neighborhoods known for summer violence with police officers, but also kept streets cleans, alleys well-lit, and youths involved with work and education activities. Overall, crimes committed by youths was down about 50 percent from 2010, officials said. With 16 homicides committed since June, the city is 54 percent below the five-year average of killings committed during the same period.
“This is 100 percent attributable to our collaborative efforts,” Gray said Wednesday. “It’s a different way of doing business. We’ve put agency directors in position to work with each other.”
Gray said the multi-agency focus will be extended throughout the year, rather than ending it when kids returned to school as originally planned.
Wednesday’s announcement was made just days after the Public Employees Relations Board ruled that the police department had violated its contract with the police union by requiring officers to work extended schedules during its “All Hands on Deck” weekends. The AHOD program floods the city with every officer on the force, putting them on 12-hour shifts to make it work. A PERB ruling released late last week concluded that the city now owes the officers overtime for change in schedules. Although the ruling was specific only to 2009, the police union has filed similar complaints against the department for 2007, 2008 and 2010.
On Wednesday, Gray praised AHOD for helping reduce crime this summer. The department is scheduled to do another AHOD this weekend.
“[Lanier] has my full support,” Gray said.
But thefts are up 13 percent and burglaries are up 12 percent since Jan. 1, 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, according to police department statistics. Overall crime is up 3 percent in the city this year.
“I don’t see how you can herald a decrease in crime, when total crime is up,” police union chief Kris Baumann said. “That isn’t smart politics.”
