Overall crime is down across the city of Albany, according to Police Chief Eric Hawkins.
Hawkins and Mayor Kathy Sheehan held one of their periodic public safety briefings Tuesday. Hawkins hailed the arrest of 25-year-old Austin Breyette, who faces a slew of charges stemming from the April 26 dirt bike hit-and-run that severely injured 18-year old University at Albany student Alexa Kropf.
“So now this person has to be held accountable for this horrific act that occurred," said Hawkins. "So I give a lot of credit, give all the credit to the hardworking detectives in the Albany police department who worked tirelessly to bring closure in this case. And it fits with our closure rate in most of our violent acts in our city. You know, the closure rate across this country is somewhere around 50% for violent acts. Our closure rate in our city is well over 75 going into 80%.”
Confiscations of dirt bikes have spiked since Kropf was hit. Hawkins pointed out that along with dirt bikes, officers have seized more than 100 guns.
“We have more than doubled the amount of confiscations that we had last year at this time," Hawkikns said. "But what's notable about this is we had a record year last year. We had a percentage increase that that was more than we had seen in recent history last year. And so far this year, we've doubled that pace. And so what that means is that we are taking away the means to commit violence in this community.”
Sheehan addressed public opinion suggesting efforts to try to enforce and enact stricter gun laws won't stop criminals.
“But this police department can tell you that it absolutely does stop criminals. When we're able to remove these guns from the streets, we are able to ensure that people do not have ready access to deadly force. And that is just a fact. It used to be so much harder to obtain these guns. But now we are seeing guns that continue to come into our community, tied to crime. When you have a gun that is used within a crime within a year of purchase, you're finding that that gun was purchased by somebody who purchased 15 or 20 guns, that's gun trafficking. That's what is happening,” said Sheehan.
Hawkins says there is no gang involvement in recent shootings.
“Of the six homicides that we've had this year, so far, all six of those homicides are the result of some interpersonal dispute between people," said Hawkins. "From the very first one on New Year's Day, to the one that we most recently had, these incidents have stemmed from some dispute that a person has had with someone else that just spiraled out of control, and escalated into extreme violence and resulted in a homicide. Half of those homicides that we've seen this year have occurred, initiated, or have actually occurred in private spaces. So those are what we commonly call ‘behind closed door’ kind of homicides. And, as we've seen, this pattern has been, we've seen for the last couple of years, you know, victims being specifically targeted by people they know.”
Hawkins says Albany has seen 24 shootings to date, versus 19 reported at the same time last year. He says police have identified where the influx of guns is originating from, but adds the critical issue is working with federal law enforcement agencies to stem the flow of weapons.
