NH Register - January 5, 2008 (Posted on Tue, Jan 1, 2008 )

Shootings spiked in '07
Gun violence in city at highest level in decade, statistics show
By William Kaempffer, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN - Gun violence in the city hit its highest level in at least a decade in 2007, though overall crime was down 7 percent and violent crime by more than that, city officials said Monday.

Through Dec. 29, 162 people were shot here, eclipsing last year's total, 118, by 37 percent, continuing to pose the most stark challenge for the city. While officials said the rate of shootings was the highest in at least 10 years, earlier statistics were not available Monday.

The good news is, after a record-setting pace the first six or seven months of 2007, the rate of shootings decreased and Police Chief Francisco Ortiz Jr. said he hoped to continue that momentum into 2008.

The total number of reported crimes through Saturday put the city's crime rate at a 20-year low, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said at a press conference Monday, leaving "on balance a very good story to tell."

The city was on pace to finish the year with 13 homicides, down 46 percent from 2006 when 24 people were killed, the highest total in the city since 1994.

The city also saw double-digit reductions in aggravated assaults (10 percent) and in larcenies (11 percent) and a 9 percent drop in robberies. Rape, burglary and auto theft increased slightly.

"Obviously and self-evidently, the year had its challenges," said DeStefano, an apparent reference to a corruption probe that led to arrest of three officers, "but these are numbers and results we can all be proud of."

City officials have attributed the decline in shootings in the latter half of the year to more cops on the street and, in no small part, work of the Street Outreach Worker program, launched this summer in an effort to engage young people most likely to shoot or be shot. Nine outreach workers, who mostly grew up on the same streets as today's troubled youths, brokered truces and mediated disputes before they escalated to violence. The successes, DeStefano said Monday, warranted that the program be continued in the next fiscal year.

The program was privately funded in its inception and the mayor said he hoped to tap the same funding sources. The Guardian Angels and the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol also worked in the city this year to reduce crime.

Compounding the increase in gun violence is a significantly lower rate in the department solving the crimes, the crime briefing revealed.

In 2007, police charged 25 suspects in 175 homicides and non-fatal shootings, although those numbers should increase as more crimes are solved over time.

That's less than half of the people arrested in 2006 - 61 in all - in connection with 142 slayings and nonfatal shootings.

"The Police Department can't do this job alone. A healthy respect for public safety means the community coming forward, acting in the best interest of its children and community and cooperating with law enforcement," said Ortiz, saying the "stop snitching" mentality is alive and well.

DeStefano touched upon a number of recurring themes and newer trends when analyzing numbers behind the numbers.

Violent crime continues to affect minorities at a disproportionate rate. Every one of the 13 people slain in 2007 was Hispanic or black, and 97.5 percent of nonfatal shooting victims were people of color, which the mayor described as "dramatic and of great concern."

Nearly 70 percent of homicide victims had some criminal history as did half the people shot in 2007.

A look at nonfatal shootings, DeStefano said, revealed the victims were getting older, with three-quarters over age 8, a 10 percent increase from 2006. The average age of victims in 2006 and 2007 was 23.

Suspects police have been able to identify, meanwhile, have been getting younger. Of 25 suspects identified in killings and nonfatal shootings in 2007, 54 percent were 18 or younger.

DeStefano said the city planned to lobby lawmakers this year to enact meaningful prison re-entry reforms. The General Assembly scheduled a special session in January and a hot-button topic will be a stronger "three strikes" law for felons in the wake of the slaying of a mother and her two daughters in Cheshire.

"Three strikes laws are not going to affect these (crime) numbers dramatically," said DeStefano. "The choice the legislature can make and the state can make to affect these numbers is on the issue of prison re-entry."

In what he called "perhaps the most meaningful thing that can be done to control violence in our communities," DeStefano said there needs to be a system in place to engage prisoners before they get out, track them once they're here and help them secure jobs, housing and any mental health or addiction services they might need to help them from lapsing into criminal ways.

© 2007 New Haven Register - a Journal Register Property. All Rights reserved.

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