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Providence police hold the line on crime
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 14, 2008
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A five-year downward trend in crime stalled in 2007, but
data show that the police are holding their own in their never-ending
battle with the criminal element.
There were eight fewer crimes last year than there were in 2006,
having decreased from 9,829 to 9,821, or essentially a 0 percent
change, according to annual Police Department figures obtained
yesterday.
Taken separately, violent crime also barely budged last year compared
with 2006. The number of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated
assaults ticked up from 938 to 940.
“We were able to sustain the success that we’ve had over the last five
years,” Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said of the 2007 figures..
There were 4,000-plus fewer crime victims last year than there were in
2002, noted Dean M. Esserman, who took over as police chief in early
2003. In other words, there were 14,039 crimes recorded in 2002 but
only 9,821 last year — a 30 percent decrease.
“The most important thing I told the command staff here, the first
week of the new year, was [that] we have to work harder this year” to
resume the decline in crime, Esserman said.
“We would not have the audacity to rest on our laurels.”
Despite a police emphasis on gun crime, however, assaults with a
firearm shot back up last year, increasing by 90 percent.
“We attribute it to some of the feuds that have been ongoing within
the city between different groups and different gangs,” Kennedy said..
The city police report crime quarterly and annually to the state
police and the FBI in a format dictated by the FBI. And the data
obtained yesterday is for so-called Part I crime, which is an FBI
term. Part I crime includes the seven most serious categories: murder,
rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and
larceny.
Arson also is a Part I crime, but the city police do not make it a
practice to publish that figure because the Fire Department has the
primary investigative responsibility.
Community policing, which entails the decentralization of police work,
is the hallmark of the Esserman administration and the strategy for
which he credits the five-year downward trend in crime. Mayor David N.
Cicilline and the police have scheduled a celebration of community
policing for today at the Lockwood Plaza housing complex in South
Providence.
Providence seems to be holding its own nationally. In the first half
of 2007 — figures for the entire year are not available yet — the FBI
reported that crime overall declined slightly across the country.
Statistics compiled from local and state police departments show
violent crime dipped by 1.8 percent between January and June 2007.
Property crimes also showed a modest decrease overall, including a 7.4-
percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts and a nearly 10-percent
decrease in arsons.
In Providence, the number of assaults with a firearm rebounded with a
vengeance last year, going up from 49 to 93. Of the 13 murders last
year, 7 were committed with a gun, according to Kennedy.
He suggested feuds and gangs lurk behind some of those numbers.
“We’ve had that dispute going on between the Hanover Boyz and the
Young Bloods” gangs, for example, he said. “That’s been a year-long
problem here. But it goes back further than that.”
An even more stubborn feud involves a rivalry between people who live
in and around the Chad Brown public housing complex and people on the
East Side, especially from the Mount Hope section.
“It is a generational thing” passed on from father to son, said Maj.
Paul C. Fitzgerald, commander of the uniformed division, with the
reasons lost in time. “When you ask these young guys what it is, [they
say] it’s always been that way. So you can’t lay it at the feet of one
incident. It’s just back and forth.”
The participants in gang warfare also find it difficult to rationalize
their behavior, the police say.
“Ask some of these people … why they hate each other or why they’re
feuding, they really can’t tell you. They really don’t know what it
goes back to. It’s just, I’m a Young Blood and you’re a Hanover Boy. …
We wear different colors and affiliate with different people.”
The police say that the average citizen or visitor has little to fear
regarding violent crime.
“Most of the violence is not anonymous,” but is committed by someone
who knows his or her target, Esserman said.
Assaults with a firearm include incidents in which a gun is used
threateningly but not necessarily fired. The number of times that
someone is shot had been trending down, until last year.
There were 105 shootings in 2002, 92 in 2003, 73 in 2004, 68 in 2005,
49 in 2006, and 59 in 2007.
Esserman sought to place the figures in a wider context, pointing out
that New Haven, which is somewhat smaller in population than
Providence, had 161 shootings last year compared with Providence’s 59.
Although Esserman resolved to do better this year, the police find
themselves hampered by budget constraints. The chief recently
eliminated all discretionary overtime for the foreseeable future in
order to help close a deficit of at least $1 million in the
department’s current operating budget.
With certain exceptions, overtime must be approved by someone with the
rank of major or above, Fitzgerald acknowledged. If someone arrests a
robber shortly before the end of the shift, for example, that officer
is allowed to stay over without special permission in order to
complete paperwork.
Likewise, if overtime work is done in connection with a state or
federal grant that will reimburse the expense, that overtime, too, is
allowed without special permission.
The department has 482 sworn officers with a financial appropriation
for 489. Up to 15 new officers soon will be waiting to come on board
with the completion of a training academy that is under way.
Providence crime
Crime ’06 ’07
Pct. Chg.
Murder 11 14 +27%
Rape 45 34 -24%
Robbery 393 392 —
Aggravated
assault489
500 +2%
Burglary 1,790 1,746 -2%
Motor
vehicle theft
1,788 1,654 -7%
Larceny 5,313 5,481 +3%
Total 9,829 9,821 —
?Source: Providence Police Dept.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
gsmith@projo.com
01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 14, 2008
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE — A five-year downward trend in crime stalled in 2007, but
data show that the police are holding their own in their never-ending
battle with the criminal element.
There were eight fewer crimes last year than there were in 2006,
having decreased from 9,829 to 9,821, or essentially a 0 percent
change, according to annual Police Department figures obtained
yesterday.
Taken separately, violent crime also barely budged last year compared
with 2006. The number of murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated
assaults ticked up from 938 to 940.
“We were able to sustain the success that we’ve had over the last five
years,” Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy said of the 2007 figures..
There were 4,000-plus fewer crime victims last year than there were in
2002, noted Dean M. Esserman, who took over as police chief in early
2003. In other words, there were 14,039 crimes recorded in 2002 but
only 9,821 last year — a 30 percent decrease.
“The most important thing I told the command staff here, the first
week of the new year, was [that] we have to work harder this year” to
resume the decline in crime, Esserman said.
“We would not have the audacity to rest on our laurels.”
Despite a police emphasis on gun crime, however, assaults with a
firearm shot back up last year, increasing by 90 percent.
“We attribute it to some of the feuds that have been ongoing within
the city between different groups and different gangs,” Kennedy said..
The city police report crime quarterly and annually to the state
police and the FBI in a format dictated by the FBI. And the data
obtained yesterday is for so-called Part I crime, which is an FBI
term. Part I crime includes the seven most serious categories: murder,
rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and
larceny.
Arson also is a Part I crime, but the city police do not make it a
practice to publish that figure because the Fire Department has the
primary investigative responsibility.
Community policing, which entails the decentralization of police work,
is the hallmark of the Esserman administration and the strategy for
which he credits the five-year downward trend in crime. Mayor David N.
Cicilline and the police have scheduled a celebration of community
policing for today at the Lockwood Plaza housing complex in South
Providence.
Providence seems to be holding its own nationally. In the first half
of 2007 — figures for the entire year are not available yet — the FBI
reported that crime overall declined slightly across the country.
Statistics compiled from local and state police departments show
violent crime dipped by 1.8 percent between January and June 2007.
Property crimes also showed a modest decrease overall, including a 7.4-
percent decrease in motor vehicle thefts and a nearly 10-percent
decrease in arsons.
In Providence, the number of assaults with a firearm rebounded with a
vengeance last year, going up from 49 to 93. Of the 13 murders last
year, 7 were committed with a gun, according to Kennedy.
He suggested feuds and gangs lurk behind some of those numbers.
“We’ve had that dispute going on between the Hanover Boyz and the
Young Bloods” gangs, for example, he said. “That’s been a year-long
problem here. But it goes back further than that.”
An even more stubborn feud involves a rivalry between people who live
in and around the Chad Brown public housing complex and people on the
East Side, especially from the Mount Hope section.
“It is a generational thing” passed on from father to son, said Maj.
Paul C. Fitzgerald, commander of the uniformed division, with the
reasons lost in time. “When you ask these young guys what it is, [they
say] it’s always been that way. So you can’t lay it at the feet of one
incident. It’s just back and forth.”
The participants in gang warfare also find it difficult to rationalize
their behavior, the police say.
“Ask some of these people … why they hate each other or why they’re
feuding, they really can’t tell you. They really don’t know what it
goes back to. It’s just, I’m a Young Blood and you’re a Hanover Boy. …
We wear different colors and affiliate with different people.”
The police say that the average citizen or visitor has little to fear
regarding violent crime.
“Most of the violence is not anonymous,” but is committed by someone
who knows his or her target, Esserman said.
Assaults with a firearm include incidents in which a gun is used
threateningly but not necessarily fired. The number of times that
someone is shot had been trending down, until last year.
There were 105 shootings in 2002, 92 in 2003, 73 in 2004, 68 in 2005,
49 in 2006, and 59 in 2007.
Esserman sought to place the figures in a wider context, pointing out
that New Haven, which is somewhat smaller in population than
Providence, had 161 shootings last year compared with Providence’s 59.
Although Esserman resolved to do better this year, the police find
themselves hampered by budget constraints. The chief recently
eliminated all discretionary overtime for the foreseeable future in
order to help close a deficit of at least $1 million in the
department’s current operating budget.
With certain exceptions, overtime must be approved by someone with the
rank of major or above, Fitzgerald acknowledged. If someone arrests a
robber shortly before the end of the shift, for example, that officer
is allowed to stay over without special permission in order to
complete paperwork.
Likewise, if overtime work is done in connection with a state or
federal grant that will reimburse the expense, that overtime, too, is
allowed without special permission.
The department has 482 sworn officers with a financial appropriation
for 489. Up to 15 new officers soon will be waiting to come on board
with the completion of a training academy that is under way.
Providence crime
Crime ’06 ’07
Pct. Chg.
Murder 11 14 +27%
Rape 45 34 -24%
Robbery 393 392 —
Aggravated
assault489
500 +2%
Burglary 1,790 1,746 -2%
Motor
vehicle theft
1,788 1,654 -7%
Larceny 5,313 5,481 +3%
Total 9,829 9,821 —
?Source: Providence Police Dept.
THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL
gsmith@projo.com