Newark goes 33 days without a murder

[Buffmaster]

Newark goes 33 days without a murder



NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- The billboards have screamed the message at motorists and pedestrians in New Jersey's largest city for more than a year: "HELP WANTED: Stop The Killings In Newark Now!"

Billboards like this one are coming down now that the murder rate is dropping.

1 of 3 For the first time in more than four decades, the killings in Newark have stopped -- for the last month, at least -- and the billboards are coming down.

Newark marked its 33rd day Friday without an official homicide, a startling fact for a city that has averaged about two killings a week over the last few years and saw homicides spike 50 percent from 2002 to 2006.

"I said when I saw some reduction, I would begin the process of taking them down," said Newark Teachers Union president Joseph Del Grosso, whose organization paid for the signs. "To belabor the point wouldn't be beneficial to anybody."

The last time the city went more than a month without a killing was a 40-day period in 1963, according to Police Director Garry J. McCarthy, who was hired by Mayor Cory A. Booker in the fall of 2006 after a stint as the chief crime strategist for the New York Police Department.

There was a fatal shooting of a 30-year-old man by an off-duty Newark police officer on February 3. But Newark police spokesman Lt. Todd McClendon said that doesn't count as a homicide under the FBI's reporting guidelines.

McCarthy attributes the drop in homicides to a broader strategy to fighting crime that includes prosecuting petty crimes, like loitering and public drunkenness, as well as more serious ones.

He also credited a recent push to share information and resources with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, state police and U.S. Marshals Service.

In addition, the city last year began installing a network of more than 120 surveillance cameras in high-crime areas of the city.

"It's not one thing we do, it's everything we do," McCarthy said. "It's a confluence of a lot of strategies and tactics applied in the right way."

All seven categories of violent crime fell last year in Newark compared to 2006, according to statistics provided by the Newark police department. Rapes fell by 42 percent to 56, while aggravated assaults and auto theft were both down 14 percent.

[AYHJA]

Damn shame this is abnormal, but hey, whatever works...