2012 HomeWorld
Middletown High School Orchestra
Theatre Guild's "Wittenberg"
Home > Blogs > Dayton area crime > Archives > 2010 > January > 04 > Entry
City’s homicides in 2009 tie for most of the decade
DAYTON - Last year’s homicide total was the highest of the decade and comes as the Dayton Police Department said its trying its best to curb gang violence and drug activity all while dwindling its force.
Forty-two people were slain in 2009, according to police data — the most since 2002, which also recorded 42 homicides, according to crime statistics compiled by the FBI.
The increase in homicides is troubling for police Chief Richard Biehl, who inherited a homicide rate of about 33 a year when he arrived from Cincinnati in early 2008.
There have been 79 homicides in the two years since his arrival.
It’s worth noting the FBI sometimes adjusts statistics reported by departments and doesn’t record self-defense homicides or officer-involved homicides, authorities said. It is possible the city’s homicides in 2009 could be slightly lower when the FBI releases its crime stats later this year.
And though numerous agencies have raised issues with the FBI’s stats over the years, they are the only measuring stick available to evaluate the country’s law enforcement agencies.
Dayton’s increase in homicides comes after Biehl orchestrated the implementation of a county-wide Community Initiative to Reduce Gun Violence program that targets gun violence among local gangs.
Law enforcement agencies began “calling in” suspected gang members currently on probation to deliver the message of swift punishment for any more crimes committed with a gun.
Those members were supposed to take that message back to their respective gang and spread it around.
It’s unclear if the message if the message is being received, though Biehl said gun violence has decreased for weeks after the gang members were called in.
Less than half of the homicides last year were gang related, according to DPD data, and there was one less gang-related homicide last year compared to 2008, Biehl said.
The motives or reasons behind the other homicides vary, though many were drug-related and a handful were committed out of domestic violence disputes.
An overwhelming majority of homicides have occurred in the city’s northwest neighborhoods, especially in the Five Oaks and Dayton View areas, which have been entrenched with gangs, prostitution and drug activity.
Just six of the city’s 42 homicides last year occurred on the city’s east side - though those areas saw increases in residential burglaries and armed robberies last year.
The challenge for Biehl and new Mayor Gary Leitzell will be doing more to bring down the homicide rate with less personnel. A record number of police and firefighters are set to walk out the door in the next two years because of retirement.
Biehl has said his department plans to be at 350 officers in the coming years, down from more than 390 it has now.
The chief is wrangling with the brain drain and is considering a complete overhaul of the department’s five districts, examining decades-old patrol practices and moving sergeants and lieutenants from the downtown headquarters to district offices.
He has to do all that while taking directives from city commissioners and Leitzell, who are doing their own wrangling of an estimated $20 million budget deficit.
“Everything is on the table,” Biehl said.
Tweet
