Troy ranks No. 1 in crime in Capital Region; Albany and Schenectady close behind

Though Troy and Schenectady have some dubious distinctions, crime hit a 25-year low in the Capital Region and New York, data show.

New York state collects data on seven "index" crimes submitted to the FBI each year to track crime trends. The index crimes include the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault; and property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Just over 21,000 index crimes were reported in 2014 in the four counties around the capital city, compared to 31,000 in 1990 and 27,000 in 2000, according to a Times Union analysis.

Murders remain relatively stable since 1990 – an average of 22 annually – but other violent crimes decreased.

Over the past decade, crime rates dropped about 18 percent in New York, which mirrors national trends. New York state has the fourth lowest crime rate in the U.S. and the lowest rate among large states, said Michael C. Green, executive deputy commissioner of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

"We are at our lowest point in over 30 years and to me, that is significant," Green said. "I don't think you see those numbers without a lot of good work being done."

Still, crime rates remain high in the state's cities, Green said.

Troy had the highest murder rate, highest property crime rate and highest overall crime rate in the region in 2014, but Albany and Schenectady were not far behind.

Albany has the second highest overall crime rate in the region, and even though Schenectady's violent crime dropped by 10 percent from 2013 to 2014, the city still has the area's top rate of violent crime.

Among mid-sized communities in the region, Rotterdam, East Greenbush and Saratoga Springs have the highest overall crime rates, and Menands, South Glens Falls and Scotia have the highest rates when compared to other small communities.

Troy had a difficult year in 2014, said Police Chief John Tedesco. "We just had a confluence of criminal activity," Tedesco said.

The city had seven murders and the number of reported crimes increased from 2,356 in 2013 to 2,551 in 2014. Arrests were made in every homicide, Tedesco said. Property crimes increased by about 200 incidents, mostly larcenies and car thefts.

"It was property crimes that actually drove our crime numbers, but I'm not saying the shootings and homicides are not serious," Tedesco said.

Car thefts were off the charts in 2014 – 130 compared to 87 the previous year – and the chief attributed it to one well-known car thief. Thefts dropped dramatically when police arrested the man, but a judge dismissed the charges and he is back on the streets.

Troy had 200 more larcenies in 2014 than the previous year. Like many police chiefs interviewed for this story, Tedesco said car break-ins accounted for many of them. Almost all of the cars involved were unlocked, so the department started a campaign warning residents to lock their vehicles.

Larcenies represent more than 60 percent of all index crimes nationally, and consequently, have a strong influence on a community's overall crime rate.

Rotterdam topped the crime rankings for Capital Region communities between 10,000 and 50,000 even though the town saw a drop in violent crime in 2014. Again, car break-ins factored into a 9 percent rise in property crimes.

Unlocked doors are an easy target for addicts, the police chiefs said.

"Just about every person that we arrest (for stealing from a car) is someone looking for some quick money, people who are addicted to crack or heroin," said Rotterdam Police Chief James Hamilton.

Rotterdam notified residents numerous times to lock their doors, but many still don't. One out-of-town criminal recently arrested in Rotterdam told police that thieves go there because "we know in Rotterdam, they don't lock their doors."

East Greenbush ranked second in midsized communities. Twenty-two violent crimes were reported in East Greenbush, including two murders.

Saratoga Springs, which ranked No. 3 among midsized communities, reported 61 violent crimes, compared to 33 the previous year. The number of reported violent crimes has been rising in Saratoga Springs since 2011, but Chief Gregory Veitch said he couldn't point to any one cause.

In 2014, Veitch said one group was responsible for numerous robberies when they repeatedly targeted the same drug dealer.

"That group was arrested, but not (until) after their six robberies caused an almost 50 percent jump in reported robberies from the year before," Veitch said.

Many of the aggravated assaults were domestic related, and Veitch said the department has a "strict pro-arrest" policy for domestic assaults.

The city's violent crime rate is 2.2 per 1,000 residents, lower than the national average of 3.7 and significantly lower than the rates of Schenectady, Albany and Troy, which are closer to 8 violent crimes per 1,000 residents.

"Saratoga Springs remains a safe community where you are unlikely to be the victim of a violent crime committed by a stranger," Veitch said. "We are not immune from criminal activity by any stretch of the imagination but we certainly do our best to prevent crime before it happens and to arrest the offenders when it unfortunately does."

The FBI discourages ranking communities based on the index data because the numbers do not take into consideration factors known to influence crime rates including population density, urbanization, age of population and poverty.

The data only represent reported crimes and sometimes can be convoluted. For example, the four murders of a Chinese family in Guilderland in October 2014 do not appear in town's statistics. Their deaths are listed under the State Police because that agency led the investigation. Cases handled by State Police and sheriff's departments are not broken down by individual towns, so towns like Clifton Park that don't have their own police force, do not appear in this ranking,

Among towns with less than 10,000 residents, Menands, South Glens Falls and Scotia have the highest crime rates, but evaluating one year of crime in communities of that size can be misleading because a small number of crimes can easily skew the statistics.

For example, a couple dozen thefts and assaults pushed Menands and Scotia into the top 3.

"It's not a crime wave," said Menands Police Chief Michael O'Brien. He said most of the crime is not committed by residents.

"We are between Troy, Watervliet and we border Albany," he said. "We get spillover from people passing through, that's where our problem is."

Scotia Police Chief Pete Frisoni said the village had 11 assaults, high for Scotia, but all but one case involved people who knew each other and police made arrests in every incident. He said he does not believe there is a pattern of increasing violent crime.

"Whether it is a blip or not, we do take it seriously and we act on them," Frisoni said.

Colonie had the lowest crime rate among the larger communities and Bethlehem, Schodack, Stillwater and Altamont had the lowest rates among smaller communities.

While no town is crime free, there clearly is one way to deter criminals: lock your car doors.

ccrowley@timesunion.com • 454-5348 • @townstu • http://facebook.com/cathleenFcrowley