Police step up patrols in part of Midtown

The area was chosen based on three-year statistics regarding crime and accident rates.

The Kingston Police Department says it has increased patrols in a portion of Midtown where statistics show higher rates of crime and accidents than elsewhere in the city.

The area — bordered by Liberty and Elemndorf streets to the north, Tremper Avenue to the east, Greenkill and Railroad avenues to the south and Prospect Street to the west — has been designated a DDACTS zone, standing for “Data-Driven Approach to Crime and Traffic Safety,” the police department said on Facebook page.

The DDACTS zone is split roughly down the middle by Broadway.

The police department said statistics from the past three years show the designated area accounts for 11 percent of all Part 1 crimes that occur in the its Kingston. Part 1 crimes are homicide, aggravated assault, rape, robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Also, the department said, the area has more than 8 percent of all vehicle crashes in Kingston and includes two of the top 10 crash locations in the city.

The police department said DDACTS “is a nationally recognized operational model that uses crash and crime data to establish efficient methods of deploying law-enforcement resources.”

“The increased police presence will be based on crime and crash data analysis,” the department said on Facebook. “The goals of the Kingston Police Department’s DDACTS initiative are to improve traffic safety [and] reduce crime and other social harms using available resources at no additional cost to the taxpayers.”