The latest update Monday on the Albany Police Department’s efforts to enhance public safety focused on a decline in overall crime.
Chief Eric Hawkins told reporters at the Albany Law Enforcement Training Center that the police department has put a dent in criminal activity across the city.
"We're talking percentages, shooting incidents, down 27% from last year," said Hawkins. "Shooting victims 26%. What's notable about some of these and I think all of our shooting categories is, during the summer we saw a significant decrease in activity. And inexplicably we had an increase during the month of December in a lot of these categories. But overall, down 26%. Burglaries down 20%. It's something that we really focused on this year, we've got, took, a lot of complaints from people in the community about burglaries and some of our property crimes. It was leading to fear of crime perception of crime. And so we made a concerted effort in the city to deal with some of these property crimes in the city. Motor vehicle thefts, significant. Down 34%, there was a time when we were 30 or 40% over in motor vehicle thefts."
Hawkins reiterated that the majority of shootings including homicides in the city involve people who know each other and have some kind of a dispute. He says 16 out of the 20 homicides in the city in 2023 were interpersonal in nature. Hawkins added it's critically important the city has communitywide involvement in addressing disputes that often begin at home, which are generally not a police matter. His solution: staffing all police stations round-the-clock with social workers trained to handle difficult situations.
"So when individuals come in, and they have these sorts of sort of interpersonal type issues occurring in their home or in the streets or in our bars or restaurants and they come to us for help, we have a person that can help them navigate it on the spot. It won't solve every homicide, it won't stop us from preventing every homicide that we'll have in the city. But it may help us prevent one or two or three or four more of these homicides, “ Hawkins said.
Hawkins says he is working on the matter with the Albany Community Police Advisory Committee. He says in 2023 his officers confiscated 140 illegal weapons. “And these guns are easily accessible. Individuals who have low impulse control and a lack of conflict resolution are using these guns to handle their disputes, “ said Hawkins.
Common councilors share the concern about gun violence. Public Safety Committee Chair Tom Hoey represents the 15th ward.
“We are putting back together the Violence Prevention Task Force. And this year, we do have a budget item, where we will have a coordinator for this task force that will come up with recommendations before the summer of 2024 - how to deal with violence in the city. And we're hoping that this can help solve some of these problems that we seem to be having,” Hoey said.
Hawkins says officers will continue to prioritize neighborhoods identified as being "hot spots" in efforts to rein in criminal activity.
“An example is the Second and Judson area, First and Quail area, you know, we saw increases in activity in those areas, significant increases in those areas three, four years ago, they were one of our designated hotspots," said Hawkins. "We devoted some resources in there. And we saw some, some improvements, some significant improvement in some cases and activity in those areas. And we had we have others as well. And so not to say that crime in these hotspots has been totally eliminated. But there has been some clear and convincing evidence that by devoting some resources and some attention to these hotspot areas, that it yields positive results.”
10th ward councilor Owusu Anane shares Hoey's concern. "I think the Public Safety's really on all of our radars, you know, especially with the Christmas homicide, the New Year's homicide, and the shooting that just occurred, and on Hudson. So again, I think many of our colleagues, my colleagues are on edge and want to see more done to address public safety," Anane said.
