As I mentioned, the District’s crime rate is at a modern, historic low. According to preliminary statistics, the number of serious crimes reported in the District declined by nearly 7 percent during calendar year 2005. This followed reductions of 18 percent during 2004 and 9 percent in 2003. As a result, our per-capita crime rate is the lowest it has been since at least 1969, the earliest year for which we have comparable figures.  And after years of being listed as one of the country’s 10 most dangerous cities by Morgan Quitno Press, the District has lost that dubious distinction. This past year, we were cited as one of the most improved cities when it comes to public safety.

 

Crime is on the decline in all parts of the city. Last year, there were reductions in each of the seven police districts. The Sixth District, in Southeast and Northeast DC east of the Anacostia River, registered the largest percent decrease: 14 percent overall, including a 30 percent drop in stolen autos, which had reached epidemic proportions in recent years.

 

According to preliminary figures, there were also citywide reductions last year in every major crime category except robbery.  There were double-digit reductions in stolen autos (-16%), burglaries (-14%) and forcible rapes (-12%). And while homicides declined by only three – from 198 in 2004 to 195 last year – this did mark the first time since the mid-1980s that DC recorded fewer than 200 homicides in consecutive years. 

 

The city – and the Department – faced a real challenge with a 6 percent increase in robberies last year.  Since last fall, we have instituted a number of initiatives to combat the robbery problem, and we are starting to see some progress in turning this situation around.  After rising from July through November, the number of robberies started to come back down below the 2004 levels in December.  The Crime Emergency that I launched on December 3rd was a significant factor in this turnaround.  In 2005, the number of robberies dropped 13 percent between November and December. By contrast, over the previous two years, robberies increased an average of 9 percent between November and December.

 

Though there are many factors that have an impact on crime, the significant drop in the past few years could not have happened without the hard work and dedication of our police officers – in identifying and arresting dangerous offenders, removing illegal weapons from our streets, addressing relatively minor crime and disorder problems before they escalate, and working in partnership with the community and other government agencies to strengthen our neighborhoods.  These and other crime-fighting activities remained strong in 2005.

 

For the second year in a row, officers arrested more than 50,000 criminal suspects.  Last year’s arrest numbers included more than 47,000 adults and nearly 3,000 juveniles. Officers also removed more than 2,300 firearms from our streets during 2005, an increase of nearly 14 percent from 2004.  Crime-fighting and community policing efforts in our 14 “hot spots” remained focused during 2005. Overall crime in the hot spots was down approximately 12 percent, or nearly twice the citywide rate. Violent crime in the hot spots declined by 14 percent.

 

But these types of highly focused efforts are not limited to just the designated hot spots.  Through our Summer Crime Initiative, the selected crime emergencies I have declared, our Mobile Force and redeployment program, and other specialized efforts, we continue to respond quickly and energetically to emerging crime problems, wherever they may occur.