Chief Anthony Campbell Monday credited strengthened supervision in the police department, more focused targeting of potential criminals, and increased collaboration with other law-enforcement agencies for helping New Haven end another year with lowered crime rates.
The city ended 2017 with seven reported homicides. That’s the lowest reported number in over 50 years, lower than the eight homicides reported in 1985 and 2003. The annual rate had risen as high as 34.
Reported non-fatal shootings also dropped from 63 to 61 in 2017, continuing a steady six-year decrease, Campbell said, even though increased use of the Shotspotter system recorded some incidents that may have gone undetected in the past. The number of shootings is also hovering at a half-century low, Campbell said, with this year’s number second only to the 60 reported in 2013.
Violent crime decreased nationally in 2017. But homicides doubled in both Hartford and Bridgeport this past year, with 29 reported in the Capitol city and 23 in the Park City.
Officials in New York City, which recorded its lowest homicide rate in decades, attributed the trend in part to efforts by Big Apple cops to focus crime-prevention efforts on the small group of likely offenders rather than broader “stop-and-frisk” techniques.
New Haven has benefited from a similar approach, Chief Campbell said Monday. Through the federal-state-city “Project Longevity” initiative, cops share information about known perpetrators of violent crimes and their associates, and jointly plan enforcement actions.
“Stop and frisk and you offend a majority of people” who are innocent, Campbell said.
Federal and state law enforcement agents meet weekly through Project Longevity to coordinate their efforts. In addition, a new intelligence team comprised of New Haven, Woodbridge, Hamden, North Haven, East Haven, and West Haven cops is now meeting four days a week at 1 Union Ave. to compare notes. That has made a big difference in identifying and catching crooks, such as a man responsible for a rash of robberies earlier this year committed throughout the region, Campbell said. “Criminals don’t respect geographic boundaries.”
Campbell also said the department benefited as well this year from having a strong supervisory command structure “finally” in place.