After the shooting Monday of a Seattle bus driver, both Mayor Mike McGinn and Police Captain Jim Dermody sought to reassure the public that the incident wasn't reflective of crime trends downtown. “We are seeing a significant reduction in violent crimes downtown and throughout the city,” McGinn said. A Seattle Times analysis of four downtown police beats shows the level of violent crime in the retail core has held steady, averaging about 80 incidents per month over the past five years, with noticeable spikes in the summer the past three years. The 119 violent incidents in the downtown core in July represent the highest one-month total in the past five years. Yesterday, McGinn said that when he spoke about downtown violent crime, he was relying on Capt. Dermody's July blog post that says violent crime through May is down 9 percent in one precinct compared with the same period last year. When the Times added areas immediately north and south of downtown, violent crime levels over the past five years were relatively unchanged.