Crime in Birmingham was down double-digits for the first half of 2020, according to police.
Police Chief Patrick Smith said the decrease so far this year has essentially been a continuation of strides made by the department beginning in mid-2019.
“One of the things I’ve noticed is typically people look at crime and they only think homicide,‘' Smith said. “You have to look at the full picture of crime to really know what’s really going on in the city and the drivers of overall crime and the drivers of your most violent crime and violent offenses.”
According to department statistics as of Thursday, July 2, the city has seen a 27.9 decrease in total crimes compared to the same time period last year. Violent crime categories were down 26.5 percent and property crimes dropped 28.4 percent.
The category of rape dropped significantly, from 96 reported incidents in the first half of 2019 to 38 in the first half of this year and robberies decreased from 437 to 231 for a 47.1 percent decrease. Aggravated assaults dropped from 1,568 to 1,265 or a 19.3 percent decrease.
There were 50 criminal homicides as of July 2 last year, compared to 48 in the first half of 2020 for a 4 percent decrease. As of Friday, there had been a total of 58 homicides in the city but eight of those were ruled justifiable and one accidental and therefore are not included in the department’s official number of criminal homicides.
Other decreases include: shots fired, from 681 to 651; burglary, 1,231 to 840; auto theft, 986 to 668; unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle, 1,173 to 726 and theft, 3,235 to 2,512.
The city ended 2019 with a slight decrease in homicides and overall crime.
“We’ve been working very hard in certain areas to reduce total violent crime and, so far, we’ve been somewhat successful in a lot of areas but then there are certain areas we need to do more work,‘' Smith said. “Right now, the crime picture looks very good overall for the city. But there are indicators and upticks that we’re watching in terms of the total crime picture.”
The chief said COVID-19, which led to a shutdown of multiple businesses and a stay-home-order statewide, played some role in crime reduction but not necessarily a significant one. “You have to recognize on a national level, a lot of areas saw crime spikes,‘' he said. “We did not see an overall crime spike, but we had independent spikes here and there. Overall it leveled out and went back to what we have been noticing.”
Smith said one of his concerns is a jump in the number of shots fired in the city. While down for the year as a whole, there has been a rise in the latter part of the first half of the year.
“What we’ve noticed is either shots being fired into certain residences or shots being fired into parked vehicles,‘' he said. “As we see increases in our shots fired, it’s usually aligning with our homicide because at some point those shots fired start making connections with people. That’s our primary concern.”
Birmingham crime statistics from January 1 through July 2, 2020. (Birmingham Police Department)
During unrest in Birmingham in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Smith said the department has noticed a considerable spike in the number of Shot Spotter calls. “We noticed a number of pawn shops in and around Birmingham were burglarized during that time frame,‘' he said. “There were maybe a couple of hundred handguns that were stolen in the process and since that time we’ve noticed an uptick in our shots fired into residences and parked vehicles.”
He attributes that spike to the availability of more guns on the streets.
“We continue to follow every lead. We have made some arrests in those categories. We have continued work to take illegal handguns off the street,‘' he said. “We’ve followed up on where we have known suspects who were involved in this type of activity and we’ve followed every lead as it relates to the guns on the street and the activity trying to make a connection between either the victims or their activity.”
As for homicides, Smith said the majority continue to take place between acquaintances of some sort. “Most of them, even in our shots fired, many of them have involved family members or somehow there has been a relationship between the suspect and the victim,‘' he said.
In recent months, there have been at least three people killed who are believed to have been innocently caught in crossfire. There have also been children wounded who obviously weren’t the intended targets of the gunfire. “There have been a couple where the intended victim and the suspect were involved and knew each other in some way and there’s been an unintended consequence of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and the tragic loss of life for no reason,‘' he said.
Smith said it’s hard to predict what the second half of the year will bring. “We have still been monitoring the day to day crime and addressing the crime trends and moving our officers around to address hotspots within the city where we may notice some uptick in crime,‘' he said. “Right now, it’s hard to tell.”
“We’re hoping that our crime efforts so far will carry through until the end of the year. On a national level, we’ve noticed violent crime has been up,‘' he said. “We have not seen the same level of activity in Birmingham, but we do plan to keep an eye on it. We remain optimistic.”
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July 05, 2020 at 08:03PM
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Birmingham crime down double digits in 1st half of 2020, police report - AL.com
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