CINCINNATI -- As of Friday, Cincinnati had seen 49 shootings, compared to 42 during the first two months of 2015.
Cincinnati Police Lt. Paul Neudigate and other top police leaders believe their place-based strategy will make headway against violent crime in the city. Introduced last month as a central aspect of Chief Eliot Isaac's crime plan, PIVOT, or Place-Based Investigations of Violent Offender Territories, will use data-driven evidence to identify violent locations in the city and disrupt the networks of people who use those locations to perpetuate crime.
"We know that there are repeated, chronic locations," Neudigate said.
IN DEPTH: How the new crime strategy works
Violent crime often clusters around particular addresses in the city, rather than being neighborhood-wide, Capt. Maris Herold said when she and Isaac rolled out the PIVOT strategy Feb. 1. The place-based strategy will map out the addresses and networks between those locations where criminals feel comfortable and safe engaging in drug-related or other illicit behavior.
In addition to shootings, other categories of violent crime have crept up slightly in 2016, including rape, aggravated assault and homicide. Robberies are slightly down, and nonviolent crimes, such as auto theft, also have seen a decrease.
For comparison, there were 53 shootings in the first two months of 2014, and 58 in 2013.
Neudigate said gang- or group-related crimes account for 50 to 60 percent of the city's shootings, and that's what will get the Cincinnati Police Department attention and effort.
He and other department leaders emphasize that community engagement is a linchpin of the place-based plan. And, Neudigate admits, there's room for improvement.
"I would say where we could have done a better job is in helping some of those communities with some of their long-term maintenance strategies," he said, "so that we're not right back there six months later."
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WCPO's Austin Fast contributed to this report.
