Despite the backdrop of a recession, county and state officials say that Schenectady County crime has only risen slightly this year, and the prison population has decreased.
From my observation at the county jail, the prisoner population is down. It comes as quite a surprise to me, because I was expecting that the economics of the world would play their part, particularly in levels of crime, said Schenectady County Sheriff Harry Buffardi.
In speaking about Schenectady County in general, he listed a few possible reasons for the decline, including a changing and declining population in the City of Schenectady.
`There have been groups of people coming into the community that have invested [here], like the Guyanese people who are working to maintain [their properties],` said Buffardi, referring to former City of Schenectady Mayor Al Jurczynski’s efforts to lure some of the Guyanese population from New York City to Schenectady.
`They seem to have upgraded the stature; they’ve bought a number of properties and improved on them,` said Buffardi.
`I’ve noticed some of the properties in Schenectady that they own are tremendously improved. They’ve gone into areas of the community that were sometimes on the downturn and they’ve improved those properties and brought stability to those neighborhoods.`
According to Buffardi, there are about 17 Counties in New York State, outside of New York City, that are accountable for 85 percent of the state’s crime. He said that resources from a program taking place throughout certain counties in New York state called Project IMPACT, have helped to reduce crime in Schenectady County over the past several years, as well as in the others that participate.
`There’s a team approach to bring in all the resources, social as well as governmental, working together. Like the police and district attorney and the sheriff,` said Buffardi.
Operation IMPACT works in several ways: It works to provide funding, resources and technical assistance to participating agencies. It also works on enhancing the partnerships among participating agencies.
According to the Operation IMPACT 2007 Crimestat Update, certain kinds of crime, including firearm related crimes, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, were generally down all across New York state.
However, according to John Caher, director of public information for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, there has been a slight increase in crime across the state, and a 5 percent increase in Schenectady County through October of this year.
Caher said there are a number of reasons as to why this is possible and that the numbers are skewed to some extent.
`Schenectady had a tremendously good year in 2007, so the numbers look a lot worse than they really are,` he said.
Between 2006 and 2007, overall crime in Schenectady dropped nearly 15 percent. Rapes were down 35 percent.
`Basically, that’s a hard record to match, so the numbers have to be taken with some analysis,` said Caher.
`To say that crime is out of control in Schenectady is completely unfair,` said Caher.
`A nearly 15 percent decrease [in crime] last year in the City of Schenectady ` that’s just a hard number to match,` he said.
He also noted that in counties with smaller populations, such as Schenectady, where there might be a grand total of five murders, the percentage of murders can easily be skewed.
When asked if he thought this slight rise was due to the economy, Caher said he was unsure.
`It’s hard to say. I think it’s interesting that we’re seeing mainly a spike in property crimes, [but] I can’t prove that it’s related to the economy. I know a lot of people are theorizing to that effect,` said Caher.“
