FRESNO, CA (KMJ) – Fresno Police make gains in their crime fighting efforts for 2018.
Aggravated assaults and domestic violence were the only crimes up for the year of 2018 – by 3% (aggravated assaults) and 6% (domestic violence), but Fresno Police say they have more work to do.
During Crime View on Wednesday, Police Chief Pat Farmer said overall violent crime was down 1.3%, property crime was down 14%, and homicides were down 42% in the City of Fresno.
It’s a report of which Chief Pat Farmer says officers can be proud.
“The street violence unit, our homicide unit saw a 94% clearance rate in murders, in the city of Fresno,” said Chief Farmer. “So, if you look around at other cities in California, it’s pretty rare to have that clearance rate.”
Chief Farmer said taking criminals off the streets was helped by their partnership with the DA”s office.
All the cases they brought to the Fresno county DA were filed, said Chief Farmer, who continued by saying that District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp’s office had a 100% conviction rate.
In 2018, Fresno PD saw 30,000 more calls for service, a total of 455,741 calls as compared to 424,785 in 2017.
The PD’s goal last year was to reduce shootings by 20 percent.
Chief Farmer said they met that goal and surpassed it.
Shootings in Fresno dropping by 32 percent in 2018.
Southwest Police Captain Mark Salazar said they “recovered 1479 guns recovered from the streets.”
He said that averages to about four guns a day taken of the streets, and out of the hands of gang members.
Chief Farmer said officers across the city were able to make more felony arrests in 2018, their figures showed 6,825 people were arrested in 2017, the number increased to 7,516 in 2018, a 10% increase.
Police say there was a 16% decrease in auto theft in 2018, but they are reporting a spike in this new year.
“In the last four weeks, we’ve had 29 vehicles stolen with the keys in the vehicle,” said Northwest Fresno Police Captain Burke Farrah, “whether those keys were in the ignition or glove box or somewhere else in the cars, it just made that job that much easier for the thieves.”
Captain Farrah reminded people not to leave their keys in the car.
Click to listen to the report by KMJ’s Liz Kern:
