Donald Trump congratulates Wilmington police on crime reduction

President Trump took notice of a stark turnaround in Wilmington gun violence this year during an appearance at a national conference on public safety Friday, mentioning by name the police chief of a city long frustrated by shootings, murders and drugs.

The Wilmington Police Department was honored with 15 other agencies across the country at the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The conference recognized the department's data and community policing.

"Thank you Chief (Robert) Tracy for your unbelievable work," Trump said Friday night, naming the city's top cop. "We are reading about it, seeing it and it really is special."

The Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative began under the George W. Bush administration in 2001 to combat gun violence, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced renewed emphasis on the program in October to reduce crime.

Wilmington Police was among the departments receiving the award for "Outstanding Local Police/Sheriff Department Involvement," which the conference website said is given "to the officers and departments that have laid the groundwork and spent time in the trenches fighting violent crime in the field, so others can fight it in the courtroom."

The department was recognized specifically for its part in city efforts to revitalize West Center City, an iconic Wilmington neighborhood with violence and drug problems.

The "West Center City War Room" in the mayor's office is part of the neighborhood improvement plan. The mayor said the city worked closely with police to reduce drug sales, enforce laws, reduce trash and invest $3.3 million into a community center.

Streets in West Center city now are cleaner and quieter. And crime in Wilmington has tumbled this year across the city — most notably when it comes to gun violence. 

"Over the past year, shootings in Wilmington are down nearly 60 percent and firearm murders are down over 35 percent," Trump told the conference in Missouri.

Last year was the deadliest year on record for gun violence in Wilmington. 

Thirty-two of the 197 people shot in the city last year died, breaking records for both the number of shootings and fatal shootings. It was the culmination of a years-long trend that got nationwide attention with the 2014 Newsweek headline "Murder Town USA (AKA Wilmington, Delaware)." The murders, for a long time, defined the city's image. 

The change seemed to start sometime between the end of last year and the beginning of 2018. 

Wilmington starts year with fewest gunfire homicides since 2013

January of this year saw the fewest shootings for that month since 2013. Only five people were shot in Wilmington in January, compared to 24 shot in January 2017. 

Of the five shot this January, only one died. Last January, seven people were shot to death in Wilmington.

Seventy-three people have been shot in Wilmington this year so far, compared to 191 people shot by this time last year. There have been 12 fewer gun homicides in the city than there were at this point last year.

As Wilmington crime stats fall, some feel it, some don't

Among efforts like the mayor's Neighborhood Stabilization Program in West Center City and more attention on blighted homes, city officials have pointed to new policing strategies to illuminate the turnaround. Not all policies have been without controversy. 

“We have spent the past year and half building and rebuilding connections to people and organizations throughout Wilmington based on our police department’s new operating philosophy that only through strong community engagement will the WPD succeed in its mission to prevent and reduce crime," said Mayor Mike Purzycki.

Tracy took over as police chief in April 2017. He brought with him a crime-fighting strategy new to the city: CompStat, a data-driven police management philosophy. 

CompStat for Wilmington Police commanders has meant weekly meetings in which crime data is shared, compared and analyzed for trends. The process requires the city's sector commanders, and other staff, to have data-supported answers for the city's crime.

Expected behaviors for rank-and-file officers have changed, as well. And for the rookies, their academy training and early on-the-job work is built on patterns new for the city.

Officers now are geographically restricted for most of their police work, returning day-in and day-out to the same parts of the city. They are also expected to go on directed patrols, parking and walking around certain problematic blocks in their sectors. 

"Now we have business principles for policing," said Capt. Faheem Akil, who commands the southeast side of the city's police districts. "The CompStat methodology, it has allowed us to see things that we may have not really paid attention to or overlooked."

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Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com. Contact Josephine Peterson at (302) 324-2856 or jhpeterson@delawareonline.com.