Overall crime down in Cincinnati

CINCINNATI - We're more than half way through the year and the picture of crime is getting better in Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Police Chief James Craig said when you hear about the rising crime rates in Chicago and Detroit, it's not an accident that Cincinnati is moving in the right direction in reducing crime.

By this time last year, there were 40 murders in the city. This year, as of July 4, there have been 25.

Chief Craig says the reasons for the dramatic reduction are two-fold: First, he credits the hard work of officers and second, the relationships with the community that help lead to arrests, like the murder of 15-year-old victim Africa Hope.

"We have a 37 percent reduction in homicides year to date," said Chief Craig. "Certainly our violent crime is down 9 percent and overall crime is 8 percent down. So, those numbers are encouraging. In fact we started the year with a a goal of a 5 percent reduction overall in crime and we've exceeded that."

But there's still more work to do. Craig says 13 of the 25 murders this year remain unsolved. That's higher than last year in terms of solvability. Craig says, to turn that around, the community needs to come forward with leads that will help result in closed cases.