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The numbers here are looking pretty good. It will be nice to see them continuing the downslide.

Crime up last year, down so far in '06
Biggest jump in Harrison, big drop in Weehawken
Thursday, August 10, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Crimes reported in Hudson County rose just over 2 percent last year, compared to a statewide drop of 3 percent, according to new statistics released by the New Jersey State Police.

The statistics, which can be viewed in detail at http://www.nj.com/news/crimestats, include violent and non-violent crimes reported for each municipality in the state.

The biggest increase in total crimes among Hudson County municipalities was reported in Harrison, which saw a 13.5 percent increase, followed by Bayonne at 12.5 percent and Jersey City at 6.5 percent.

The largest decrease in reported crimes in Hudson County was recorded in Weehawken, which saw a 14.8 percent drop. East Newark also had a double-digit decrease, at 11.6 percent.

There were 418 people murdered last year in New Jersey, the highest toll in a dozen years, but Jersey City and Hudson County saw even more dramatic increases. There were 49 homicides in Hudson County in 2005, the most since 1989, and 38 homicides in Jersey City, the city's highest total since 1982.

"The crime rate in Hudson County is below the five-year average, but it clearly is not acceptable," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. "The municipal police departments and the Prosecutor's Office are working together to make an effort to reduce criminal incidents in 2006, and preliminarily that appears to be the case."

The 3,180 violent crimes reported in Jersey City in 2005 puts the city's violent crime rate per 1,000 residents at 13.3, an increase of more than 8 percent. The 8,807 non-violent crimes reported in Jersey City in 2005 puts the city's non-violent crime rate at 36.84, an increase of more than 6 percent over the previous year. Jersey City's overall crime rate in 2005 was 50.14, up from 47.08 in 2004.

In 2005 the crime rate also went up in the Hudson County municipalities of Bayonne, Harrison and Guttenberg.

Bayonne's overall crime rate in 2005 was 19.06 per 1,000 residents, compared to 16.90 in 2004. In Harrison, the rate was 32.05, up from 28.05 in 2004. In Guttenberg, the non-violent crime rate dropped, but an increase in reported violent crimes pushed the crime rate up from 20.47 to 21.52.

East Newark's total crime rate dropped from 18.43 per 1,000 in 2004 to 16.47 last year, while Weehawken saw an even steeper decrease, from 31.32 in 2004 to 26.8 in 2005.

Hudson County's overall crime rate of 36.0 per 1,000 residents is well above the state average of 26.9, but below Essex and four other counties. It also is an improvement from the five-year average of 38.2.

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey said the numbers for crimes in the city reported so far this year show a considerable drop from 2005.

"I hope we have turned the corner, but we can't rest now," said Comey, who became chief in June. "We have to aggressively pursue this to bring the number down even further."

During the first seven months of 2006, compared to the same period in 2005, murders are down 21 percent, rapes up 2 percent, robberies down 7 percent, aggravated assaults down 20 percent, burglaries down 22 percent, theft down 10 percent, auto theft down 18 percent and arson is down 34 percent, Comey said.