Is Canton less violent? City's crime numbers decrease in 2023

CANTON ‒ Violent crime in the city decreased by 5% in 2023 compared to 2022, and 10% compared to an average of the previous five years, Police Chief John Gabbard told City Council recently.

"I'm proud to report that we have seen some very significant reductions in violent crime throughout the year," he said.

Violent crime includes homicide, rape, robbery, menacing, aggravated burglary, felonious assault, domestic violence and assault.

More: 'We are in this for the long haul.' Canton police chief addresses eight homicides

Several people who live and worship in Canton neighborhoods generally agree with the chief's conclusion.

"I know that the report is probably true in our neighborhood, but it's one of the better ones," said Nancy George, who lives with her husband, Robert, east of Stadium Park.

Bruce Bradley and Tony Jennings, both trustees of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Canton, agree that crime declined from 2022 to 2023.

"I don't see very much violent crime, as I did in the past couple years," Jennings said. "It has declined ... especially, like I said, in the Black community. Not as much is going on as it used to be. But I still think there's petty crime, a lot of petty crime."

"Police violence, it seems like it's subsiding," Bradley said. He said he hears fewer complaints about people being harassed on traffic stops.

Although statistics indicate a drop in crime, it didn't go away.

How does Canton compare to other Ohio cities?

Numbers compiled by the FBI from 2022 show Canton's crime rate a close second to Cleveland's among Ohio's 10 most populous cities.

Canton had one crime for every seven residents. Cleveland had one crime for every 6.9 residents. Columbus had one crime for every 12 residents, and Cincinnati, one for every 12.4 residents. Youngstown, the 11th largest city, had one crime for every 12.9 residents.

To former Mayor Thomas Bernabei, the differing crime rates in Canton and Columbus can be attributed to decisions that caused a difference in development patterns between the two cities. Columbus required outlying areas to annex to the city to receive its utility services; Canton didn't.

"The city of Canton failed in the 1950s to annex everything or most everything in Stark County using our robust and plentiful water system, as Columbus did in the 1950s. Today, Columbus and Franklin County are virtually synonymous," Bernabei said, reflecting on the end of his eight years as mayor in a story published in The Repository in December.

"Any new residential; any new commercial development is in Columbus as a result. Poverty and crime in the inner city of Columbus are very similar to Canton but are offset greatly by the outlying development.

"Belden Village could have been to Canton what Polaris is to Columbus. Canton’s landlocked borders dictated much of Canton’s future thereafter," Bernabei said.

Canton's homicide numbers level off in 2023

The number of people who were killed by another person in the city remained the same in 2023 as in 2022.

There were 16 homicides in Canton each year, according to a Repository analysis of data from the Stark County Coroner's Office and Canton Police Department.

Gabbard told City Council on Jan. 29 that although the number of homicides in Canton was unchanged from 2022 to 2023, some of last year's killings were determined to have resulted from self-defense. Three deaths were attributed to self-defense in 2023. No 2022 homicide was attributed to self-defense.

Crimes involving gunshots drop in Canton

The city saw a significant decline in the number of incidents involving gunshots from 2022 to 2023, and from the previous three years to 2023. Gabbard said the police department has tracked this data well for only that period.

"One is too many. We know that," Gabbard said. "But I do want to emphasize the fact that what we're doing is having an impact, it's having an effect statistically, for sure."

Among the changes made last year was an earlier weekend curfew for anyone under 18. Starting in June, children were not to be out, with certain exceptions, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. seven days a week.

City Council expanded curfew hours after a spike in teen violence, including an increase in juveniles being arrested for firearm charges in early 2023.

Gabbard said it is hard to determine the effect of the curfew expansion.

"We have used a number of strategies and we have been effective at communicating our response priorities across all bureaus and divisions," he wrote in an email.

"One of those priorities has been having a positive effect on juveniles. Our focus on curfew helps us identify juveniles that lack supervision or are defying the supervision of those who are trying to keep them safe at home."

Neighborhood activist: 'A lot of gun carrying'

In the city's northwest section near the Arts Academy at Summit, Rod Pisani is an original member of Summit United Neighbors, a neighborhood association founded in 1995.

He said the area between Fulton Road and Shorb Avenue has improved since the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, when violent street gangs had a heavy presence. He attributed their decline to "long, long work with the police and other people."

Pisani believes the police chief's statement that shootings have decreased.

"But I do know people are getting robbed. They're seeing guys jump over the fence ... carrying guns. There's a lot of gun carrying downtown," he said.

The prevalence of firearms was one of the reasons Pisani stopped going to bars 10 or 11 years ago.

"Every time I'd be in the bars, a guy would reach over to get a drink and his coat would open, there would be a gun in there," Pisani said.

Domestic violence is another issue that persists, he said.

Other strategies employed to fight crime

Gabbard told council on Jan. 29 about strategies employed to fight crime, including the Coordinated Response Team that works with the police department's Real Time Crime Center data and Special Investigations Unit.

"They are investigators," he said. "They know a lot of the individuals in our neighborhoods. They know the families. They spend time with the families. Our strategy has been, when we have a shooting or an incident or a fight, this team is going to those families and they're dealing with those families, discussing things with those families and those juveniles, even if it's not an arrest."

Walking beats have sent officers to engage with young people and families in residential neighborhoods.

"We've had a great response from the community," Gabbard said. "My officers have had a great response."

He said he believes the right balance has been achieved between community outreach and direct law enforcement to make the department effective.

TikTok challenge affects auto theft rates

Auto thefts dropped 16% in 2023 from the 2022 level, but were 15% above the previous five-year average.

Gabbard said 2022 saw a record number of auto thefts due to a TikTok challenge showing how to start Kia and Hyundai models without the use of a key. It also resulted in an increase in criminal damaging and vandalism as the result of attempted car thefts, which Gabbard said "destroys your car" because thieves break windows and steering columns. Criminal damaging rose 2% from 2022 to 2023, and 7% from the previous five years to 2023.

Between July 2022 and Dec. 31, 2023, police responded to 808 incidents of theft or damage involving Kias and Hyundais. Of 105 suspects or associates, 85% were under the age of 18.

"Literally, what you would see is kids who were 12, 13, 14, two, three o'clock in the morning, break into a car, drive it until the gas runs out, walk home, drive from one end of the town to the other," Gabbard said.

"But the problem that we really started having is the associated crimes. Once it became so easy to steal cars, those stolen cars were then used in much bigger crimes. We had a homicide with a stolen Hyundai utilized as a getaway car. We had drive-by shootings and shootings into habitations. We had at least one robbery."

In January, the department charged 21 juveniles with a total of 92 charges related to the auto theft spree, Gabbard said.

Attention to housing brings down burglary and break-ins

Breaking-and-entering dropped in 2023 compared to 2022 and compared to the average from the previous five years.

"Some of that I attribute to the work done in low-income housing, re-housing people, tearing down vacant housing or condemning houses that can't be habitable," Gabbard said.

Pisani agrees.

"The biggest thing I think helped with the crime was the demolishing of these homes because that's where all our trouble was," he said. "They would be in there, hiding out or whatever, and a lot of the homeless would hang out there. We had a major problem when those houses were around."

Property crime declined 10% in 2023 compared to 2022, and 6% compared to the previous five-year average.

Gabbard said he believes the city is turning the corner on property crimes, with the police department having a handle on a core group of people involved.

Near Summit school, Pisani sees the potential for further crime reductions as the result of work done by organizations like Project REBUILD, which serves young adults 16 to 24 with education and job training.

"We do have problems with young kids," Pisani said. "If you gave these kids things to do, and paid them something so they had money, you'd probably eliminate a lot of crime."

Year-over-year comparison: Here are the number of homicides in Stark County and Canton from 2022 and 2023

More: Police chief reports to Canton council on violence

2023 report: 'We are in this for the long haul.' Canton police chief addresses eight homicides

Change in Canton crime incidents in 2023 compared to 2022 and previous years' averages

Reach Nancy at 330-580-8382 or nancy.molnar@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @nmolnarTR.

Staff writer Kelli Weir contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton sees decline in violent crime, property crime