Shootings at 10-year high in city

Twenty-five homicides have taken place in the city of Cincinnati so far this year, and that's average for recent years.

Shootings, however, are a different story.

As of May 24, 162 people were injured by gunfire this year. That is more shooting victims within that time frame than any year in the past decade, according to a report given to Cincinnati City Council's Law and Public Safety Committee on Tuesday.

Daytime shootings have rattled residents in Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, the West End, East Westwood and the Clifton Heights-University Heights-Fairview neighborhoods in the last month.

"Enough is enough," said Sara Hall on Friday morning, after a man was shot in the chest near her apartment building in the 2300 block of Vine Street.

"There are babies in these buildings," Hall said. "Our kids can't even come outside to play without knowing if they are going to get shot up."

Police said they think the shooter fled on foot with an assault rifle, accompanied by five juveniles wearing red shirts.

There are unusual, curious and troubling patterns this year, said Robin Engel, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati and director of the University of Cincinnati Policing Institute.

Engel has helped track and analyze crime statistics for the Cincinnati Police Department for several years. She started her presentation as she does each time she addresses council.

"I will be talking about numbers of shootings and homicides," Engel said. "But we all know in this room that these are real people with families, with loved ones ... . All the folks I work with in the police department ... we know these are real people and we are working hard to reduce the harm and damage in our community."

For seven years the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence – known as CIRV – has tracked the number of homicides that can be linked to gang or loosely organized group crime. The goal has been to get the number of homicides related to organized violence below 50 percent, Engel said. Police have linked 6 of 24 homicides this year to gang violence. Tuesday's homicide in Walnut Hills is not included. That's 26 percent – the first time since tracking began that the percentage has fallen below half.

But shootings again deepen the complexity of the issue. Incidents involving multiple victims have increased, particularly this year. The number of multiple shootings is nearly 25 percent higher this year than the five year average.

More women homicide victims

So far this year, 56.5 percent of homicide victims have been men, that's far below the percentage in recent years and means many more women have fallen victim. Last year, men made up 87.1 percent of the victims and 93.1 percent of the victims in 2013.

The average age of victims is running about average at 28.8 years, Engel said, but only because this year there has been an unusually high number of deaths of infants and children and older people.

"The majority of the homicides are not our young black victims that we typically see," Engel said.

Efficacy of CIRV questioned

The last month has been particularly violent, Engel said, pointing out that shooting trends were looking relatively normal, even below normal, until the recent spate of violence.

All of this up and down and swinging of trends led to a discussion that seems to happen every year: Whether CIRV is the right model for the city to attack violent crime.

"If CIRV is not working, get rid of it," Councilman Charlie Winburn said. "It's not working. We sit here, talk about how bad it is. Somebody ought to have an answer to this."

CIRV relies on a combination of tactics including digging through data for trends, employing civilian advocates who try to encourage peace at the street level and call-ins and home visits of known offenders, who are warned that the police know what they are up to and offered social services to escape a life of crime.

Funding for CIRV has gone up and down over the years and therefore the resources devoted to it has have as well, but Engel said it is the best model out there. However, she said, violence only trended downward for two weeks after the last call in, as opposed to a regular average of 4-6 weeks.

"We didn't have the success this time," Engel said. "We are looking at why."

Councilwoman Yvette Simpson asked whether it may be because CIRV reduced some of the social services it offered.

"I'm in favor of keeping CIRV in place, but CIRV isn't the only answer," Simpson said. "Our communities continue to suffer. There has been a steep increase in the poverty rate in our community. We struggle with redevelopment in our neighborhoods."

Public Safety Committee Chairman Christopher Smitherman ended the discussion by saying he too continues to support CIRV and that his bigger concern continues to be what he sees as too few officers on the street.

"At roll calls, one, two or three patrol cars going out," Smitherman said. "I am asking that this change ... There is a baseline of service this committee should demand."