Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini.
A downward trend in overall crime is reported by Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini through added police staffing, among other public safety measures.
Fiorentini used Tuesday night’s state of the city address to cite a 20 percent overall reduction in the city’s crime rate in a two-year span. Fiorentini told a city hall audience, including city councilors, crime in Haverhill during 2015 was down the second year in a row.
“There were 50 fewer assaults last year than there were two years ago. There were 273 fewer larcenies, 117 fewer burglaries and, overall, 465 fewer crimes. It’s truly an amazing story and our police officers deserve a round of applause for a great job,” Fiorentini said.
Fiorentini credited adding 12 new police officers in the past three years and the department’s use of “predictive analysis software” with the downturn in those categories. He added there was a 32 percent drop in burglaries over five years and, over six years, a 59 percent reduction in home invasion crime. However, he noted, “Not all crimes are created equal” and said there is more to do for the “serious opiate addiction problem” in the city.
“We’ve added Narcan, we’ve added police, we’ve added health workers. We copied Gloucester to add a social worker to counsel people and formed a task force to deal with this but we know there’s more to do. This year we’re applying for more grants to do even more and tonight I want to thank Governor Baker and our state leaders, our senators and representatives, for their leadership on this issue because this is not an issue that can just be solved by us locally.”
Among other public safety accomplishments reported by Fiorentini, fire department improvements, as city finances permitted, include newer equipment and restored staff levels.
“We have new ladder trucks, new pumper trucks. We just got in a new resuce truck. And thanks to the great work of our firefighters, sometimes working on their own time, we’ve now improved every fire station. Next month we’ll be swearing in four new firefighters, bringing us to a full complement and, for the first time in decades, establishing a reserve force,” Fiorentini said.
According to Fiorentini, public safety staff levels, including police, are at their highest since 1994 and, “probably, since Proposition 2 1/2 in the 1970s.”
WHAT ? IS ANYONE CHALLENGING the Mayor on these staffing levels ? I call bullcrap ! More cops than ever ?? That’s hard to believe Mr Mayor. You love to say you have hired “more” cops. But what you fail to tell people is that you lose just as many so your net gain is negligible. The force loses 5 you hire four and don’t fill the open position. So it SEEMS like you hired 5 when people look at the budget but only 4 spots are hired. I know the budget, how it works, and how to hide things ! Haverhill is losing officers to other more lucrative positions elsewhere.
The ONLY reason you HAD to buy new trucks was because of the deplorable condition of some of the older ones. Let’s not forget how you LOVE to tell people how long you have been serving as Mayor. So, using your own logic, these trucks fell apart under YOUR watch ! Just like everything else. Oh, how is the STILL leaking police station doing ??
As usual all you get is spin and lies from mayor taxman.
“An amazing story…” ? How “exactly” did any cop on the HPD have a “direct” impact on larcenies, burglaries and assaults being lower? Does this fraud actually want us to believe crimes are not happening in this city because he hired a few employees?
The incompetence of this is that if crimes are down, why are staffing levels up? If there is less work for cops to attend to then staffing should be reduced. Only in government can you make up numbers and stories and with a straight face claim it is a success.