Murder rate up, other crimes down Shea addresses new 2014 stats, resident remarks

Overall crime is down in Jersey City, but not anxieties.
The murder rate has doubled from 2012 to 2014, according to the newest statistics released last month for the year 2014 in Jersey City. Other areas of crime declined from 2013 to 2014. Public Safety Director James Shea said the Police Department continues to fine-tune the approach to crime fighting, to make better use of resources, make closer contact with neighborhoods, run more undercover investigations, and put more cops on the street.
However, he rejected talk of “community policing” as simplistic and said that the response has to be more complex.
Last week saw another high-profile murder when the fire chief’s son, Darcel Rivers, 35, of Rhode Island, was shot once in the back of the head during a robbery at 3:45 a.m. Thursday near Fulton Avenue (see briefs).
The department’s task, Shea said, is to understand whether crime is declining or changing its nature. He consults regularly with other North Jersey city departments to spot trends and changes, and swap notes on investigative techniques. But he said the larger job is to better understand police-community dynamics in an era when law enforcement and the people they are trying to serve, especially in minority neighborhoods, find themselves in confrontation more than cooperation.
The statistics
The number of murders in Jersey City rose from 12 in 2012 to 20 in 2013, and then to 24 in 2014, doubling in the past two years. While the number of murders this year is so far less than during the previous two years at the same time, crime tends to peak in the summer months.
The only other area of increase from 2013 to 2014 was rape, which rose from 31 to 32, and theft of trucks, which rose from 25 to 36.
Robberies of various kinds fell from 1,733 to 1,654, assaults with weapons, from 883 to 702, and simple assaults (with hands, fists or feet) from 1,733 to 1,654.

Burglaries declined during the same period from 1,052 to 887. Larceny theft fell from 3,046 to 2,804. Car thefts fell from 704 to 512.

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