As I have noted earlier, if you read the “scanner news” digital dispatches that come out of social media and Email “blasts,” it is easy to be left with the impression that Wilmington is fighting a losing battle when it comes to violent crime.
WHYY recently recetnly took a look at the issue and found that the city continues to make headway in cutting its murder rate.
Reports of progress are nothing new. However, it is good to see that the decline has been occurring over a six-year period.
Wilmington, unlike other police departments around the state releases detailed Compstat reports that include detailed crime stats.
The latest numbers through the end of July show a 60% drop in the homicide rate over the past half-dozen years, despite spikes that often occur from grudges or drug-related turf battles.
Even more encouraging are signs that a decline in murders involving juveniles may be taking hold, perhaps due to some of the non-enforcement initiatives that have been put in place over the years.
None of this means that the city and state can take the foot off the gas.
A stark reminder of the ongoing wave of tragedies came on Friday when Delaware Online reported that a senior vice president of WSFS died of injuries this week from a stray bullet while on her way home for work. Such incidents are extremely rare, but one is too many.
To their credit, the mayor and others in city and state government are reluctant to tout the achievement.
As noted above, shootings that kill or wound innocent bystanders occur far too often, and trotting out crime stats does nothing to ease the pain and suffering of families of victims.
However, there is nothing to stop the business community and state government from highlighting the progress and building the case for bringing jobs to the city.
Meanwhile, those of us in the media need to do a better job of running “scanner news” with context that includes information from Compstat and other reports.
Today’s reporting on the WSFS VPs death included no crime statistics data. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer
