Monday at police headquarters, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and Police Chief Brendan Cox gave an update on crime and public safety.
While the prevailing sentiment says that Albany isn’t safe, Chief Cox says the reality is violent crime is down. He compared data from this year to the same time period last year.
"One of the ways that we have to address perception is get our numbers out there so people understand that crime is down in this city. So when we look at property crime overall, all crime is down. Property crime, burglaries are down 25% so year over year, 171 to 129. Larcenies are down 943 to 695, a 26% change," said Cox, who is serving as interim chief while the city prepares to elect a new mayor. He added there has been a 63% decrease in the number of shootings, while motor vehicle theft is down by 26%. Murder and sexual assaults are both down by 50%.
Sheehan says statistics are continuing to improve following the pandemic, when many of the city’s systems had to pause or shift gears. "The probation department had to pivot and work on contact tracing. They were not doing home visits to people who are on probation. Our violence interrupters were not allowed into the hospitals so they couldn't do violence interruption. The courts shut down. So people who were supposed to be sentenced weren't sentenced, weren't being monitored other than by an ankle bracelet," Sheehan said.
Cox emphasized that the department's strength and success is supported by "four pillars;" enforcement, deterrence, prevention and education.
"We recognize that when people are committing larcenies, when people are stealing from stores, and they're doing that because they have substance use disorders, mental health issues, when they're doing that because of poverty, that we're also then not just prosecuting those folks. We're actually instead connecting those folks to services," Cox said.
Cox notes the department plans to continue to keep crime down this summer by keeping youth engaged. He and the mayor noted that the Hoffman teen center is being rebuilt, the new pool at Lincoln Park will soon open, and West Hill is getting a community center. And to add to all of that, the YMCA is launching a new mobile unit.
