Rockford Police Report 2012 Murder Rate Down Compared To Previous Years
By: Vi Nguyen
Updated: January 2, 2013
January 2, 2012 (ROCKFORD) -- From robberies to shootings to murders, Rockford is ranked number 11 on a Yahoo! Top 25 list for 'Most Dangerous Cities in America'.
If you take a closer look at Rockford Police numbers, you will see a drastic change in the number of homicide cases.
"When it comes to the serious crime like homicide," said Rockford Police Lt. Marc Welsh. "It's always nice to see that down and this is the lowest number of homicide that we had going back several years."
14 homicides were reported in 2012 in Rockford, which is a drop from 2011, when 22 homicides were in the books.
Rockford Police said, they only saw 8 homicides in 2004.
"This year I would like to see less than 14," said Theresa Davenport, Ceasefire Supervisor. "You know the less we can get the better."
Theresa Davenport is the Supervisor for Ceasefire, which is a non-profit organization working to stop the spread of violence in Rockford's neighborhoods.
She argued, it's going to take a whole lot of man power to keep that number down.
"We all just need to come together you know instead of one person taking the credit," said Davenport. "Let's all come together as a community and take the credit and say that we have collectively took back our city."
Rockford Police point out that not all murders are the same, preventing them requires enforcement on many fronts.
"Homicide comes from several areas. They can be domestic related. They can be gang involved and drug involved," said Lt. Welsh. "We'll certainly work on those areas to keep the numbers down."
Now of the 14 homicide cases, 8 are solved while the other 6 remains under investigation.
Comments
Murder rate may be down but is all violent crime down? Probaly not!
Scott S.
January 2, 2013 at 6:30 pm
