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Hartford Police Stats Show Drop In Serious Crime

Police Chief, Mayor Cite 6.9 Percent Decrease In 2010 Compared With 2009

By HILDA MUÑOZ

January 04, 2011

Days after a double homicide opened the new year, Police Chief Daryl K. Roberts and Mayor Pedro Segarra announced a decrease in serious crime in the city in 2010, including a double-digit percentage drop in homicides.

"We ended [2010] on a high note, but we began [2011] on a sad note," Roberts said Tuesday during a press conference at city hall.

The statistics, compiled by the Hartford Police Department, show serious crime dropped 6.9 percent in 2010 from 2009. Serious crime is defined as murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and auto theft.

Both Roberts and Segarra attributed the decrease, in part, to neighborhood policing programs and building relationships with Hartford communities and business owners.

"Our vision for the police department is about service, relationships and safety," Roberts said.

The homicide rate saw the biggest drop, with a 26.5 percent decrease. There were 25 homicides in 2010, compared with 34 the year before.

There were also 12.9 percent fewer shooting incidents and 11.79 percent fewer shooting victims in 2010, Roberts said.

Aggravated assaults, nearly a third of which are domestic violence, went up by 7.6 percent. But Roberts pointed out that the single-digit increase is lower than the 16 percent jump seen in 2009.

Reported rapes went down by 19.6 percent. Burglaries, which increased 12.7 percent in 2009, dropped by 8.3 percent in 2010.

The news of the dropping overall crime rate was marred by a double homicide early Jan. 1. During the press conference, Roberts said his thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two men killed and announced that arrest warrants had been issued for two suspects.

Jose Medina is in custody and was arraigned Monday on unrelated charges. Police continue searching for his alleged accomplice, Angel Rivera, 29.

Both face charges of capital felony, murder and conspiracy.

Segarra, whose father was shot to death, said statistics won't matter to people who have lost loved ones to violence. But he said he wants relatives of victims to know that his goal is to eradicate all crime in the city.

"I have to make it a point to each family that our goal, as impossible as it may seem, is to have no crime in the city," Segarra said.