Bucking a national trend, Providence is experiencing a significant decline in violent crime this year, down 14.5 percent for the first six months, says the Providence Journal. Police Chief Dean Esserman, back from last week’s National Violent Crime Summit in Washington, D.C., attributed the positive trend to hard police work, a strong focus and adequate staffing. Providence has an authorized force of about 495 sworn officers. He called Providence “one of the few cities in the country that has maintained its staffing.”
Esserman said Providence was one of only five of 50 cities attending the conference where violent crime and crime overall has dipped in recent months. The others were New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami. Providence officials credited community policing for reducing crime, although the Journal noted that “some of the cities experiencing spikes in violent crime are dedicated practitioners of community policing.”
Link: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20060902_chief2.336e700.html