ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Murders in Boston and New York dropped to their lowest levels since the 1960s and declined in other big cities in 1996, with law enforcement authorities giving some of the credit to tougher, smarter police work.
``Most of the major cities reached a point where they said, `We have to do something,''' said Dennis Kenney, research director at the Police Executive Research Forum.
Other reasons given include longer mandatory sentences for violent criminals, the waning crack trade, the publicity cast on spousal abuse by the O.J. Simpson case, and a decline in the number of men in their late teens and early 20s.
``Typically, violent crime tends to be a young man's enterprise, and there's fewer of them now,'' Kenney said.
The statistics are preliminary and the final numbers won't be in for several months. And some big cities, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami and Washington, actually reported higher numbers of homicides. But many other major cities, including Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Orleans and Los Angeles, saw a drop.
Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans said his force cracked down on gun trafficking and high-risk convicts on probation while cooperating more closely with state and federal law enforcement, community groups and clergy.
``We're policing far differently than we did several years ago,'' Evans said. ``In the '70s and early '80s, we said, `We'll solve the problems. We're the professionals.' We've opened the process up and made people feel that they're part of the solution.''
As of Tuesday morning, Boston had 58 murders - fewer than any 12-month period since 1966. In addition, no one under 17 has been killed with a gun in more than a year.
The department added 300 officers over the last two years, though Kenney said their presence doesn't necessarily discourage potential killers.
In New York, murders have fallen more than 50 percent since 1990, from 2,245 to fewer than 1,000 in 1996 - the lowest number since 1968. The drop since 1990 coincides with the addition of 7,000 police officers, for a total of nearly 37,900, or one for every 193 residents.
Phoenix Detective Mike McCullough said a 10 percent increase in his force since last year helped keep the number of homicides to 205, compared with 244 in 1995.
In Los Angeles, there were 688 homicides reported through Dec. 14, compared with 829 for the same period last year, a 17 percent drop. A decline in gang violence and even fallout from the Simpson case may have played a role, Lt. Anthony Alba said.
Dallas, with one of the country's highest per-capita crime rates, halved its homicide toll since 1991. In 1996, there were 219 killings as of midday Tuesday, down from 276 in 1995.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines KEYWORDS: FATALTIYby CNB