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Since this issue is so important to Hartford's revitalization efforts, I'd like to keep a running thread for all discussion about Hartford crime. Thankfully the HPD keeps running statistics (updated weekly) for all crime as well as providing comparisons to previous years and district by district breakdowns. Because this is such a touchy subject and one that is treated irrationally by so many I've encountered, hopefully this grounding in fact will keep the discourse elevated.

YTD (week ending June 7) Part One Crime:

Murder: 11 as compared to 8 in 2007

Rape: 32 as compared to 25 in 2007

Robbery: 233 as compared to 290 in 2007

Agg Assault: 330 as compared to 303 in 2007

Burglary: 407 as compared to 483 in 2007

Larceny: 1688 as compared to 2059 in 2007

Auto Theft: 567 as compared to 679 in 2007

Complete data can be found here:

http://www.hartford.gov/police/Crime_Stats.../2008_06_07.pdf

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Since this issue is so important to Hartford's revitalization efforts, I'd like to keep a running thread for all discussion about Hartford crime. Thankfully the HPD keeps running statistics (updated weekly) for all crime as well as providing comparisons to previous years and district by district breakdowns. Because this is such a touchy subject and one that is treated irrationally by so many I've encountered, hopefully this grounding in fact will keep the discourse elevated.

YTD (week ending June 7) Part One Crime:

Murder: 11 as compared to 8 in 2007

Rape: 32 as compared to 25 in 2007

Robbery: 290 as compared to 233 in 2007

Agg Assault: 330 as compared to 303 in 2007

Burglary: 407 as compared to 483 in 2007

Larceny: 1688 as compared to 2059 in 2007

Auto Theft: 567 as compared to 679 in 2007

Complete data can be found here:

http://www.hartford.gov/police/Crime_Stats.../2008_06_07.pdf

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Hartford, State Police Go After City Crime

By TINA A. BROWN And DAVID DRURY {sodEmoji.{sodEmoji.|}}Courant Staff Writers

Beginning Monday, state police will begin a 15-week joint effort with Hartford police to reduce violence and combat crime on city streets.

Operation Safe City 2008 will feature the addition of 12 uniformed state troopers and two supervisors under an agreement reached this week between state and city police officials, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.

State troopers will work alongside their city counterparts in park-and-walk and bike patrols, with two to four troopers assigned to bike patrols. The patrols will continue through late September. Sources familiar with the deployment plan said the city will assign four officers to task forces earmarked to combat auto theft, narcotics and firearms.

Full Story: http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/...0,6475826.story

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hartford is a major distribution center for drugs. Major because of location and major because hartford is not equipped to do anything about it and the drug scum know it and have known it for a long, long time. all the people involved know that the law can't deal with them. Not enough law enforcement.

this has led to an overall atmosphere that at times resembles a wide open, lawless, free for all that filters down to the street. kids that have nothing to do with the gangs and their drugs are caught up in the atmosphere. nowhere else in our state do I see kids just walk in front of cars , ignoring stop signs and street lights. nowhere else do cars race on streets and smash into things such as historical homes, people, and architectural monuments. nowhere else are drive by shootings as prevalent as in hartford. and there is much more. A junkie "nodding" on the steps of town hall at 11:30AM on a sunday and the scumbag panhandlers intimidating people on church street near main. not a cop to be seen.

nowhere else does the state have to step in with police and if you notice, when the state cops come in, everything settles down. It is a unique situation that will not go away until there is an adequate amount of force in the city to stifle the gangs and their drug operations, which is at the root of what ails hartford.

next time you are in nyc, look around. there is an incredible amount of police on the street, with good reason. If there were as few police, proportionally there as in hartford, few would be out at night, no retail to speak of would be there, it would not be one of the ultimate destinations for the entire world.

all the consultants that have been paid millions to suggest streetscapes and greenways, transportation strategies, and all else have taken their money without addressing adequately the need for however many cops on the streets it takes from park street to albany avenue and from the river to west harford on asylum and farmington av. up and down franklin, wetherfield, and maple. until then, progress will be limited.

and to the

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Yeah that was tough to read, but worth it. Lots of good points.

It seems to that NY owes its current place on top of the heap in large part to Giuliani hiring a million cops. this also made ny much more bland than it used to be. is the loss of flavor worth the increase of safety? yes I think it is.

would adding 100-200 cops and a few hundred security cameras take anything away from Hartford? HELL NO.

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Is anyone else tired of Eddie Perez's answer of "but overall crime is down in Hartford" in the face of every new violent news story??? I know I am.

Leaders are made in times like these and Perez has done NOTHING in this time of crisis except sit on his hands with his mouth shut. The violence over the last few months has scared the daylights out of the typical suburbanite who view Hartford as a dangerous modern wild west to be avoided at all costs. Don't believe it? Read the comments online after any Courant story. Governor Rell offered State Police help and Perez actually declined the offer at first if you can believe it.

Perez is completely incompetent and in way over his head. This should have been addressed head-on six months ago with a no tolerance for crime attitude and a request to the state for help. If Hartford is viewed as a dangerous place to stay away from, Blue Back will get busier, Front Street will never happen, Hartford 21 will never get leased and downtown restaurants, cultural attractions and clubs and bars will suffer. You think suburbanites and potential retailers don't see whats going on? Perception is everything.

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People for a ways around see Hartford as a dangerous murderfest and steer clear. Seeing reports in the Courant about five men approaching a car and randomly firing gunshots at it doesn't help. Even when I talk about Hartford to co-workers of mine (this is in Worcester), the consenus (not that I help Hartford's case much) is that the crime rate is alarming and certain places of the city are no-go zones.

I went to the Dave Matthews Band concert at the Meadows on Saturday. I'm 23 years old next month, and yet my parents still wanted me to call them as soon as the show ended and then when I got back to my car, just to make sure I wasn't beaten or shot. The instructions: run to car, lock doors, get to 84 as fast as possible. I didn't fear being in that neighborhood, more the drunks at the concert and being struck by lightning due to the thunderstorms.

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Is anyone else tired of Eddie Perez's answer of "but overall crime is down in Hartford" in the face of every new violent news story??? I know I am.

Leaders are made in times like these and Perez has done NOTHING in this time of crisis except sit on his hands with his mouth shut.

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I have a question? What ever became of that former black Houston or Dallas police officer who became Hartford's police chief several years ago? How did he do? Did he become a scapegoat? Did all of Hartford's problem's land on him?

As far as state police backup is concerned, we do that here in Providence on Thursday-Saturday nites, mainly because of the large young club population. Oddly enough, most of the trouble makers come from CT & MA. A lot of clubs here have 18+ special nights which spells trouble.

I think it's a good idea to have the state police, in any state, to have some type of urban experience, since they are mainly patroling highways and rurals areas. In RI we actually had a state bill pass that authorized the monitoring of racial profiling by the state police, who took exception to this law. So eventually it covered every police department in RI.

After talking to several people over many years who have lived or visited in Hartford it would appear that indeed it is a dangerous city. But is it really? Have the decent and good folks of Hartford fled to the suburbs of East and West Hartford?

I aplaude the good folks of this forum for wanting nothing but the best for their city.

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Perception is reality. I live on Asylum St. across from St. Francis, I hang out downtown after work and I've never seen Hartford as an unsafe city. It's like any other major city. When I lived in DC, you avoided Southeast, just like you avoid the North End of Hartford.

The problem IS the Hartford Police Department. I have a couple of friends who work in either detention or probation and the stories they tell me are depressing. Instead of Perez and everyone else in town hall complaining about the media attention, they should actually do something about crime instead of constantly spinning what's going on.

Having lived in Hartford for a year now (and I grew up in the 'burbs), there is a world of potential for the city but it's just depressing as heck to see nothing actually happen. I'm tired of Perez, Gottesdiener and everyone else making these grand proposals and failing to follow through. The crime in Hartford can be reduced but it's going to need more officers on the street. And downtown Hartford can be renovated but it's going to take actual developers with a track record, not just people who are friends of the city.

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I have a question? What ever became of that former black Houston or Dallas police officer who became Hartford's police chief several years ago? How did he do? Did he become a scapegoat? Did all of Hartford's problem's land on him?

As far as state police backup is concerned, we do that here in Providence on Thursday-Saturday nites, mainly because of the large young club population. Oddly enough, most of the trouble makers come from CT & MA. A lot of clubs here have 18+ special nights which spells trouble.

I think it's a good idea to have the state police, in any state, to have some type of urban experience, since they are mainly patroling highways and rurals areas. In RI we actually had a state bill pass that authorized the monitoring of racial profiling by the state police, who took exception to this law. So eventually it covered every police department in RI.

After talking to several people over many years who have lived or visited in Hartford it would appear that indeed it is a dangerous city. But is it really? Have the decent and good folks of Hartford fled to the suburbs of East and West Hartford?

I aplaude the good folks of this forum for wanting nothing but the best for their city.

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Perception is reality. I live on Asylum St. across from St. Francis, I hang out downtown after work and I've never seen Hartford as an unsafe city. It's like any other major city. When I lived in DC, you avoided Southeast, just like you avoid the North End of Hartford.

The problem IS the Hartford Police Department. I have a couple of friends who work in either detention or probation and the stories they tell me are depressing. Instead of Perez and everyone else in town hall complaining about the media attention, they should actually do something about crime instead of constantly spinning what's going on.

Having lived in Hartford for a year now (and I grew up in the 'burbs), there is a world of potential for the city but it's just depressing as heck to see nothing actually happen. I'm tired of Perez, Gottesdiener and everyone else making these grand proposals and failing to follow through. The crime in Hartford can be reduced but it's going to need more officers on the street. And downtown Hartford can be renovated but it's going to take actual developers with a track record, not just people who are friends of the city.

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I'm not. Every violent news story is not an excuse to collectively throw away rational thought. Crime is down - and down dramatically. Even murders - the most stubborn of the crimes - are oscillating around a much lower average than before.
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Perception is reality. I live on Asylum St. across from St. Francis, I hang out downtown after work and I've never seen Hartford as an unsafe city. It's like any other major city. When I lived in DC, you avoided Southeast, just like you avoid the North End of Hartford.

The problem IS the Hartford Police Department. I have a couple of friends who work in either detention or probation and the stories they tell me are depressing. Instead of Perez and everyone else in town hall complaining about the media attention, they should actually do something about crime instead of constantly spinning what's going on.

Having lived in Hartford for a year now (and I grew up in the 'burbs), there is a world of potential for the city but it's just depressing as heck to see nothing actually happen. I'm tired of Perez, Gottesdiener and everyone else making these grand proposals and failing to follow through. The crime in Hartford can be reduced but it's going to need more officers on the street. And downtown Hartford can be renovated but it's going to take actual developers with a track record, not just people who are friends of the city.

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Do you have the yearly crime rate statistics for the last ten years? Compare to last year (before), this year's violent crimes are certainly not down. Maybe we all have short attention span, but thing such as crime rate is always better off lower than last year, and lower than historical average.
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Chessplayer- don't know where you get your stats from, but violent crimes are up sharply YTD in 2008 as opposed to last year. And gun related incidents are WAY up.

According to the HPD website - Murders (11) are up year to date over last year (8). Rapes are up 32 to 25 and assaults are up 330 to 303. There are 92 shooting victims this year so far as compared to 65 last year to date a whopping increase of 42%. These are all significant % increases. Larcenies, burgaries and auto thefts are down which skew the numbers and allow Perez to tell us "overall crime is down", but big deal. Its the shootings and the murders that make the news every night. And like I said, perception is everything. You may not care what the typical suburbanite thinks, but Hartford business owners and landlords sure do. We need the typical suburbanite to feel Hartford is a safe place to visit and spend time and money. If not - forget it.

In addition to the nightly shootings in the news, you had two very high profile violent crimes make the news -- one nationally-- in the last two weeks. This makes a a huge impression on people who may not be as familiar with Hartford as we all are here. No one is a bigger supporter of Hartford than I am, but this is a problem and Perez needs to get a handle on this. I have no faith that he will.

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As far as state police backup is concerned, we do that here in Providence on Thursday-Saturday nites, mainly because of the large young club population. Oddly enough, most of the trouble makers come from CT & MA. A lot of clubs here have 18+ special nights which spells trouble.
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Chessplayer- don't know where you get your stats from, but violent crimes are up sharply YTD in 2008 as opposed to last year. And gun related incidents are WAY up.

I got my stats from the Hartford Police Dept. website, like

According to the HPD website - Murders (11) are up year to date over last year (8). Rapes are up 32 to 25 and assaults are up 330 to 303. There are 92 shooting victims this year so far as compared to 65 last year to date a whopping increase of 42%. These are all significant % increases. Larcenies, burgaries and auto thefts are down which skew the numbers and allow Perez to tell us "overall crime is down", but big deal. Its the shootings and the murders that make the news every night. And like I said, perception is everything. You may not care what the typical suburbanite thinks, but Hartford business owners and landlords sure do. We need the typical suburbanite to feel Hartford is a safe place to visit and spend time and money. If not - forget it.

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I do not think these stat accurately depict how safe Hartford is or isn't. How many of these crimes were random? That is the key I think. I'm in the North end regularly I'm not scared because I do not sell drug or engage in any other criminal activity. If you were going to visit Bensonhurst, Brooklyn would you be turned back by a rash of mob killings? Or would you go because you aren't affiliate?

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I went to grade school in West Hartford and Hartford. When I was going into 6th grade, my family moved from West Hartford to the west end of Hartford. A a year later I was going to Quirk Middle School in the north end.

I learned that it was not cool to be a good student. Excelling academically (or showing respect to teachers and school faculty) was often looked at as conforming to the "white man's" world. The number of kids that apparently lived with their grandmothers seemed kind of odd to me.

In my senior year of high school, I transferred back to West Hartford. At Conard High, I suddenly felt the pressure to get my act together.

All the crime in Hartford simply looks like the evolution of what I saw when going to school there.

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In Hartford, it's more patrolling the streets in the tough neighborhoods. The downtown area and places where the suburbanites come to, those are fine. There might be your typical drunken fighting by the outsiders, but it's not like your shootings and stabbings in the North End.

I don't know much about Providence, but does your state police hang around the bar districts, or do they venture into areas where residents are terrorized by some of their own neighbors.

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