Crime Trends in Rochester NY
ASIS Rochester thanks Rochester Police Department Chief of Police David M. Smith and Commander Michael DeSain for speaking at our November 14th meeting. In addition, Nick Petiti provided a great overview of the RPD Open Data Portal tool covering the City of Rochester.
Chief Smith indicated that the key focus over the last two years has been on firearm violence. It is one of the areas that consumes the most resources of the RPD. This focus has led to a reduction in firearm violence of 45% and it is currently lower than the 10 year average. RPD has used data driven targeting recognizing that nearly all gun place violence comes from 17% of the streets in Rochester. They have increased attention on foot patrols, outreach and the drug and homeless population. There has also been a focus on known gun offenders. There have been 500 arrests and 1,000 guns taken off the streets. While gun related homicides are down significantly, other areas such as vehicle and domestic disputes are up slightly. RPD has organized a Non-Fatal Shooting investigative unit which is achieving a 37% arrest rate -- over 20pp higher than the national average. Response time has improved to 6 minutes for a Tier 1 issue - this has been accomplished with better presence in key areas despite the department being short over 100 positions. There has also been a higher rate of stolen vehicle recovery with hundreds of people being arrested.
RPD is emphasizing to their ranks to do their job -- to make the arrests as needed even though many will be released and only issued an appearance ticket. What this does is to help understand who the repeat offenders are - these people are the ones who commit more serious crimes.
The RPD Open Data Portal is used frequently by the RPD to understand trends and direct resources. It is also available to the public (transparency laws). It can be a useful tool to businesses to help understand issues that may affect security in their business locations. To access this tool, search for RPD Open Data Portal.
