Police Chief says they're coming from all city neighborhoods
Syracuse Police are pleased that they've made quick work of solving their two latest homicides, but Chief Frank Fowler is worried about another crime statistic. He says the dramatic jump in the number of shots fired calls, and of guns being recovered by police, is 'staggering.'
Here are the numbers: in all of 2009, there were 65 calls for shots fired. In 2010, through the 8th of June, we're already up to 139, more than double all of last year's totals. And here are the breakouts:
Shots Fired calls:
January 2010: 31 February 12
March 36
April 14
May 43
June (until 6/8) 3
Chief Fowler will be in Albany on Tuesday, along with Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, to lobby for microstamping bullet casings. He says the ID's would make crime scene evidence, and therefore guns and suspects, easier to trace.
He'd also like to see mandatory prison time for handgun possession, saying that law in New York City has cut violent crime dramatically.
The chief says gun violence is not unique to Syracuse, that urban crime is up nationwide, but that he'd like to put a curb on it here. Fowler says public input to police, when something suspicious is noticed, is a big help and he says that the two arrests after this weekend's deaths come from tips. He says 'Operation Safe Surrender' earlier this month, where community leaders talked to people turning themselves in on outstanding warrants, 'turned a corner' in improving police-community relations.
Chief Fowler says the gun violence issue is city-wide, in all neighborhoods and 'anything we can do to get a gun off the streets, I'm all for it.'
