Report: Providence violent crime rose 5.6% in 2005

In his State of the City address this month, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline touted the fact that “though we may not yet have escaped the horrors of gun violence, it’s a great city when the overall crime rate is down for the third consecutive year.”

The statement was accurate: The number of crimes reported in Providence in 2005 was .42 percent lower than in 2004 – 18,623 vs. 18,702.

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But a new report prepared by the Providence Police Department and the nonprofit The Providence Plan shows that while total crime was down, and so was property crime, violent crime – defined as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault – increased by 5.6 percent.

There were 1,145 violent incidents reported in 2005, compared with 1,084 the previous year. The city had an extra five murders, for a total of 22. Rapes were up from 84 to 99.

Robberies involving guns dropped slightly, but robberies without guns went up.
In addition, while overall property crime decreased 3.4 percent in 2005, burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny from a motor vehicle all rose. The largest category of property crime, other forms of larceny – which includes shoplifting, pickpockets and purse snatchings – dropped 15.2 percent in 2005.

“Our goal is to have less victims,” said Police Cmdr. Paul Kennedy in an interview. “We’re disappointed to see that violent crime went up last year … it’s something that we constantly work on and strive to do better at.”

Cicilline was unavailable for comment before Providence Business News’ deadline.
City Councilman John J. Igliozzi, meanwhile, who represents Ward 7, including Hartford Avenue and Killingly Street, called the numbers in the report troubling.

“Twelve out of 16 crime categories are up,” he said. Igliozzi noted that the types of crimes that went up – such as murder, rape and motor vehicle theft – are of concern, and argued that there seems to be a “huge disconnect” between the image being portrayed to the public and what’s actually happening.

“It looks like there’s willingness to compromise public safety for a political agenda,” he said. “I think it’s important that the people of Providence know the truth – not the political truth, the real truth.”

Some statistics in the report could indicate an increase in enforcement by the police, as opposed to increases in the underlying crime. Drug-related incidents and weapons law violations, for instance, both increased, with drug-related incidents alone increasing 39 percent, rising to 1,504 from 1,082.

Looking at Providence’s neighborhoods, the biggest spike in violent crime occurred in Ward 3, the area around North Main Street, Hope Street and Smithfield Avenue, where the number of incidents shot up by 92.3 percent last year, rising to 50 from 26. Property crime also increased in the area last year, by 4.4 percent, to 689 incidents.

Ward 4 – which includes parts of Branch Avenue, Charles Street and Douglas Avenue – saw a 73.1-percent increase in 2005, with 90 incidents that included four murders and 50 aggravated assaults.

Wards 12 and 13, which both include pieces of downtown Providence, saw few dramatic changes in 2005’s figures. Ward 13, which also includes parts of Cranston Street and Westminster Street, saw a 14-percent drop-off in property crime and a 5.7-percent drop-off in violent crime.

Police officials meet weekly to discuss the different problems in each of Providence’s neighborhoods and have broken the city into nine regions – all of which have a different supervising officer and plans for enforcement, Kennedy said.

Dan Baudouin, executive director of The Providence Foundation, said he did not believe that the figures were high enough to scare developers away from investing in downtown Providence. However, he said that the nightclub environment in the city is still one of Providence’s biggest problems in attracting development to the area.

Much of the violent crime in the area can be directly traced to closing time at the bars, he said.

“People need to feel safe in order to locate here or make investments here,” Baudouin said.