01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 6, 2010
By Gregory Smith
Journal Staff Writer
Esserman
PROVIDENCE — Major crime overall declined in the city by 11.2 percent in 2009, continuing a general seven-year downward trend, Police Chief Dean M. Esserman said Monday.
But there has been little public celebration because violent crime ticked up by 0.4 percent last year compared with the year before. Within that subcategory, murders in particular soared by more than two-thirds
Esserman disclosed in January that total major crime went down in 2009 and that violent crime went up, but no figures were released at the time.
In 2008 there were 10,424 major crimes, according to the police, and in 2009 there were 9,252, or 11.2 percent fewer.
Taking a longer view, there were 14,039 major crimes in 2002. Seven years later, in 2009, that figure was 9,252, or a difference of 34.1 percent, according to Police Department statistics.
Esserman and his command staff have attributed the seven-year downward trend to their application of the community policing philosophy, which emphasizes an attack on the causes of crime rather than the traditional reactive approach of after-the-fact crime-solving.
Esserman’s report encompasses most of what the Federal Bureau of Investigation defines as Part I crime, or major crime: Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny. The FBI includes arson as an eighth category of Part I crime, but because the Fire Department investigates arson, the police do not report those crimes.
There were 24 murders last year, compared with 13 the year before, or an increase of 84.6 percent.
In an effort to address the murders — eight were cases of domestic violence — Esserman created what he called a domestic-violence triage group. He brought together police officers and domestic violence and social service experts for meetings every other week to better concentrate the department’s focus on domestic violence.
“We’ve been working very hard on domestic violence,” he said.
It is too soon, Esserman said Monday, to tell if that effort is having an effect.
In addition to the domestic violence initiative, Esserman announced in January steps that the police would take to address the proliferation of firearms, violence associated with the city’s nightlife and youth violence.
Esserman said there would be a gun buyback to be organized with Providence’s clergy. He said Monday that enough money will be provided from private sources to finance the buyback but that if necessary he would spend federal aid to the department.
The date of the buyback and other details will be announced within 10 days, he said, and he declined to disclose how much money has been provided.
“We will have the money we need,” he said.
Regarding nightclub violence, especially downtown and in the Jewelry District, Esserman beefed up a long-standing roving police detail on weekends with more officers and equipment in January.
Separately, in order to grapple more effectively with youth violence, Esserman is moving to better integrate the Detective Bureau and the Youth Services Bureau, where detectives also work. Six officers last month were promoted to detective, and in a departure from past practice, all are receiving detective training together. The Detective Bureau and Youth Services used to indoctrinate their detectives separately.
Esserman also intends to group Youth Services detectives by police district, as is done already in the Detective Bureau, with the aim of promoting inter-bureau cooperation.
In the six major crime categories other than murder, there were:
• 46 rapes in 2009 compared with 35 in 2008, or an increase of 31.4 percent
• 426 robberies in 2009, compared with 523, or a decrease of 18.5 percent
• 624 aggravated assaults, compared with 545, or an increase of 14.5 percent
• 1,847 burglaries compared with 2,026, or a decrease of 8.8 percent
• 1,100 motor vehicle thefts compared with 1,495, or a decrease of 26.4 percent
• 5,185 larcenies compared with 5,787, or a decrease of 10.4 percent
gsmith@projo.com
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