Detectives are still trying to piece together the details behind a violent crime spree in Central Fresno, one involving kidnapping, torture, rape, and murder. But Fresno police say despite the horrific nature of that incident violent crime is actually down across the city by nearly eight percent.
The trends are so far downward that Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer is calling it a "dramatic" reduction and he credits his police force.
"They're dialed in; they know where crimes are occurring, addressing it when it occurs in a timely fashion," Dyer said.
Using crime data police keep track every single incident that happens in and around city limits. This year shootings have decreased by more than 12 percent. Nearly every district is reporting a decrease in general crime. In Northeast Fresno robberies are down by 42 percent, in Northwest Fresno crime has dropped 56 percent. In Southeast Fresno aggravated assaults are down by nearly 53 percent.
Only the Southwest Fresno District saw a spike in crime as there were 37 more assault cases as compared to last month. The chief says it's about identifying crimes and shifting resources to the right place.
"We are very intelligence led, it's not enough to have good intelligence or crime data but to be able to share that data with the people that can make decisions with it," Dyer said.
He says every crime is a dot on a map every dot is then analyzed by police and then steps are taken to stop that crime before it becomes a trend.
"We want to put cops on the dots and put strategies in place where crime's occurring," Dyer said.
Chief Dyer says it is about doing more with less, something that at least for the past few months, has proved to work within Fresno's city limits.
