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Crime in the city has fallen or remained level in most categories with the exception of one unusually violent month last summer, according to the newly released New Bedford Police Department’s 2024 crime report.
The four homicides in August alone equaled the number of killings in the city for each of the previous four years, and raised the 2024 homicide number to seven. Otherwise, crime was down or about level across the board, led by sharp drops in robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary.
The improvement is particularly striking in light of crime 10 years ago. According to the report, violent crime — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — dropped from 1,014 incidents in 2015 to 406 last year, a 60% decline.
Property crime — arson, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft — dropped from 3,211 incidents in 2015 to 1,546 last year, a 52% drop. Larceny is defined as stealing property and includes shoplifting, purse-snatching, and theft from a building, car, or vending machine.
Drug overdoses — both fatal and non-fatal — are also down sharply in the last few years. Drug treatment practitioners say this is probably due to a number of “harm reduction” approaches for substance abusers, and the greater availability of Narcan, or Naloxone, a drug used to reverse the effects of opioid overdose.
However, the last five years have also seen increases in incidents of gunshots fired, simple assault and motor vehicle theft.
In a news release, Chief Paul Oliveira, who is retiring on May 3, said the progress shown in the report results from “focused enforcement, strong community partnerships, and a shared commitment to a safer New Bedford.”
In an interview Tuesday, Oliveira attributed much of the improvement to better use of information. He said the department — which just hired a second statistics analyst — gathers more information about where crime is occurring as it’s happening, looks at patterns and uses that data to direct law enforcement.
“We’ve gotten better to get those numbers out to officers, to know where to be, when to be there,” Oliveira said.
For instance, information on stolen cars might be flagged for attention, as stolen cars are often used in other crimes, particularly shootings, Oliveira said. A person released from jail or prison, and known to the police, might be flagged as a potential crime risk.
The report brings good news for a police department that was shown in a bad light in March and April by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. “Snitch City,” a series of stories and podcasts on abuses of confidential informants in narcotics investigations, put particular focus on Oliveira’s work as a narcotics detective decades ago.
The department has challenged some of the reporting, including questioning the reliability of the newspaper’s sources.
Still, in response, Mayor Jon Mitchell in March named 21CPSolutions, a public safety consultant, to investigate the New Bedford Police Department’s narcotics and internal affairs divisions and report back in about three months. Mitchell also hired Michael Berkow, former head of internal affairs for the Los Angeles Police Department, to review the Globe’s reporting “so that no area in need of improvement is missed,” Mitchell wrote, adding that Berkow’s findings would be publicized. Mitchell also said he forwarded the Globe series to the FBI.
In a written statement, Mitchell said the crime report is “hard evidence that the men and women of the Police Department are getting the job done for our residents. It’s also an affirmation of the Department’s expanded use of data analysis to get a step ahead of evolving public safety threats, and it confirms the value of the ongoing push to modernize policing practices.”
More shots fired
Shots fired have risen at least since 2020 from 45 that year to 67 in 2023 and 68 last year, a difference of 51%. The report shows that of the 68 incidents of gunfire, 42 resulted in property damage only, 14 in injuries and three deaths.
Oliveira said the rising number of gunshots fired could be tied to a couple of main factors: more untraceable or “ghost” guns on the street, and the fact that juveniles are usually the ones shooting the guns. It’s very tough to keep juvenile offenders off the street, he said.
“As the juvenile court system works, it’s very difficult to get juveniles locked up. Juvenile crime explains most increases in crime you’re seeing right now,” he said. “We’ve seen that for some time now.”
Two of the three fatal shootings were among the four killings in August. There was no pattern to the homicides and no connection among them.
In the first, Aaron Britto, 44, was found shot to death early on Sunday morning, Aug. 4, on Earle Street. Anthony Jalo, 21, was later arrested and charged with shooting Britto and taking a chain he was wearing.
On Aug. 17, Nicholas Miller, 26, was found shot outside a bar on County Street. Published reports said he and the accused shooter, Raymond Albury, 27, of Weymouth, were acquaintances.
On Aug. 20, Stephen Oswald, 58, a man described in police reports as homeless, was found lying on a bench in Seabra Plaza on Rockdale Avenue after he had been kicked and stomped. Nina Busnengo, 31, who was last living in Mattapoisett, was charged in the crime.
On Aug. 24, a family argument led to the fatal stabbing of Omil Padilla-Corsino, 23, in an apartment on South Street. His uncle, Juan Padilla-Santana, 42, of Puerto Rico, was charged in the killing.
Arrests were also made in a fatal shooting in April on Austin Street, and in stabbings on Atlantic Street in September and Acushnet Avenue in October.
New Bedford safer from violence than Brockton and Fall River
Compared with two comparably sized cities in this part of the state, New Bedford looks safer from violence, but not property crime.
Figures for Brockton and Fall River are not yet available for 2024, but the 2023 numbers show that the rate of violent crime per 10,000 residents was lower in New Bedford. The 2023 violent crime rate was 49 per 10,000 residents in New Bedford, 66 in Brockton and 84 in Fall River.
The property crime rate was 158 per 10,000 in New Bedford in 2023, 125 in Brockton and 139 in Fall River.
New Bedford’s population in 2023 was nearly 101,000, Brockton about 106,000 and Fall River 94,000.
Over five years, some crime numbers rose, then fell
While the New Bedford report shows crime in most categories declining since 2015, there have been fluctuations from one year to the next in the last five years.
Sexual assault rose from 88 incidents in 2020 to 120 in 2022, then dropped to 98 in 2024. Robbery dropped from 108 in 2020 to 86 in 2021, rose to 112 in 2022, and fell back to 86 last year.
Aggravated assaults rose from 382 to 429 from 2020 to 2022, and since have dropped sharply to 228.
Three exceptions to falling crime in the last five years are incidents of gunshots fired, simple assault and motor vehicle theft.
Simple assault has risen since 2020, from 1,339 to 1,522, nearly 14%. Motor vehicle theft dropped to 270 in 2024, after spiking to 347 in 2023 from 202 the year before.
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
If my perception is correct, the reduction in crime in New Bedford over the past 10 years coincides with the influx of immigrants from Central America into the city. The point being that the assertion that immigrants bring crime to a community certainly doesn’t apply to New Bedford. In fact, the opposite may be true.