The mayor and police chief gave their latest update this week on the Albany Police Department’s continued efforts to enhance public safety.
During the latest in a series of public safety briefings, Chief Eric Hawkins noted the city’s homicide rate increased by two to 17 in 2023 with murders October 8th and 14th.
"We've also had a number of arrests, a number of notable arrests since our last update," said Hawkins. "We've made arrests in four shootings, including the Second Avenue barbershop homicide. We have a person in custody for that. And there was also a shooting on South Pearl Street. Nobody was shot but we have a person in custody for that one."
Police confirm the arrest of 18-year-old Timmoure Miller in connection with the May 13th killing of 47-year-old barber Tyrone Staley at Village Barber and Beauty. 25-year old Taijon Alston was charged in the October 14th Sheridan Avenue shooting of 27-year old Jahrique McDonald, who died of his injuries two days later.
Hawkins says 87% of city homicides involve individuals who know each other. Democratic Mayor Kathy Sheehan says violent crime in Albany is being addressed. "Some of these homicides are not traditional, there's a situation where you have a domestic abuser, and then somebody decides to take that next step and use a gun," Sheehan said. "Oftentimes, it's other interpersonal relationships happening among family members. And so we really need to come together and understand what drives those relationships and how we can better connect and work with folks, many of whom became disconnected during COVID, whether it was from their churches and their church groups, or schools and with children and remote learning, friend groups, so we really need to ensure that we're looking at these issues and trying to ensure that we're helping folks."
Hawkins says the city’s numbers are "down in all major categories of gun related crimes," with "overall crime" down 6%, and adds that additional arrests stemming from other crimes have been made... "...for two other shootings as well. We have a person in custody for stabbing. We have people in custody for illegally possessing firearms. Two of those incidents involve domestic incidents. One involved an individual who was also in possession of a kilo of cocaine, as well as a semi-automatic handgun, a revolver and a rifle. [We] also made two burglary arrests, including the arrest of the individual who broke into TapAsia on Lark Street. And we also made an arrest of a habitual larceny, petit larceny person, a person who has been arrested this year alone 22 times, mostly for larcenies in the Washington Avenue extension area by the Commons, by the businesses up in that area," Hawkins said.
Hawkins says police have made "some notable progress with robberies," pointing out that many involve Facebook Marketplace... "... where individuals were meeting people online and arranging for meetings at different in various places in the city. And in some of those cases, individuals were robbed. We've made an arrest, a couple of arrests of individuals involved in those and we expect to see our robbery numbers to start to decrease dramatically in that area as well," said Hawkins.
8th ward Common Councilor Jack Flynn serves on the Public Safety Committee. He says it's good that the public is hearing from the mayor and the chief on a regular basis.
"One of the issues a lot of the common council members have had is communication between us and the mayor's staff," Flynn said. "So, everybody in the Public Safety Committee is appreciative of the numbers. But again, any murder above one is way too much in any year. I do, we listen a lot to the chief. And, you know, my only take in, is if what we're doing is not working. And sometimes, you know, we may have to change the philosophy that we are doing, but I just don't know when you start changing the police model. We love community policing. And is it really working? We don't know. I mean, I know the chief says he has data, but a lot of lot of crime is is public perceptions, that that's sometimes the reality of crime."
