The Hartford Police Department released its end of year report at the first COMPSTAT meeting of the year Thursday.
The department announced that homicides, sex assaults, robberies and aggravated assaults were all down in 2016, compared to 2015.
Homicides were down 54.8 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year. However, police noted that non-fatal shooting incidents increased 2.6 percent compared to 2015. Additionally, ShotSpotter detected 857 incidents in 2016, more than double the 394 incidents in 2015.
Incidents of sexual assault were down 8.2 percent, robbery incidents were down 7.4 percent, and aggravated assaults were down 4.7 percent, police said.
The property crime numbers were also favorable. Burglary incidents were down 4.7 percent and larceny incidents were down 2.1 percent. Auto thefts also saw a 14.6 percent decrease. Police noted that older model Hondas and Toyotas continued to be the most targeted vehicles for theft.
Despite the positive outlook by number, city leaders said there was still much to do. Chief James Rovella noted that the city was working on ways to combat the ongoing opioid crisis and the issue would be addressed in more detail at future meetings.
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Police said heroin and fentanyl use often drive other crimes, starting with property crime and going all the way up to homicides as guns are brought to the streets in exchange for drugs.
The mayor echoed the police department's attitude on further work needing to be done.
“A year in which many of the indicators of crime were down over the year before but that is not a reason to wave banners of victory – that’s a reason to redouble our efforts to make the city safer,” said Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
The mayor also noted the city was continuing efforts to reduce gun violence and thanked the police department for their work.
"You’ve done an extraordinary job this past year, as you always do, in an environment where you don’t have as many officers as you need, not as many officers as we want,” he said.
