Call it the Elm City's Catch-22.
Violent crime dropped by 9 percent in 2010, according to the New Haven Register, but the number of the most violent offenses, homicides, nearly doubled.
While non-fatal shootings and robberies were down, murders were up.
The number of larcenies also rose while the number of car thefts fell significantly.
One alarming element that remains constant is gun violence, which the newspaper reports, happens disproportionately in the black community.
Of the 24 homicides in 2010, 23 of the victims were black. In 2009, all 12 of the 13 victims in 2009 were black.
Police Chief Frank Limon said part of the story is geographical. Homicides have been concentrated in the poorer neighborhoods with large black populations.
The detective bureau since May has solved more than half of homicides in the city. That's a marked improvement over the previous 12-month period when only two of 20 killings were solved.
