KINGSTON LED BY LARCENIES
Reports of serious crime in city edged up in 2019, stats show
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Reports of serious crime in the city were 3.5 percent higher in 2019 than the previous year, according to a report from the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
But even though there were two homicides last year, compared to none in 2018, the overall increase was not driven by violent incidents.
Rather, it was the result of a 4.4 percent increase in “property crimes” (burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts) — particularly a 12.6 percent jump in larcenies, such as items being taken from cars, according to the state data.
Burglary reports fell from 80 to 59 from 2018 to 2019, while reported vehicle thefts dropped
from 25 to 20.
Reports of violent crime in Kingston dropped from 70 in 2018 to 68 in 2019.
The FBI collectively defines murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and vehicle theft as “serious crimes.”
Kingston had 566 reports of serious crime last year, up from 547 the previous year.
Of the 2019 total, 498 were property crimes. And of those, 419 were larcenies. In 2018, there were 477 reported property crimes, including 372 larcenies.
“We did have an increase in the larcenies last year,” Kingston Police Chief Egidio Tinti said in an email. “The majority of that increase is in car larcenies — ranging from change being taken from cup holders to some electronics in the back seat.”
Tinti reiterated what he and other police chiefs have stressed in the past:
“We encourage everyone to keep their cars and homes locked in order to reduce these types of offenses.”
Mayor Steve Noble said Kingston police are keeping the city safe.
“We thank the members of the police department who work each and every day for the safety of the city of Kingston, and we support them in asking our residents to be vigilant in keeping their car doors locked to help prevent these petty larcenies,” Noble said, also in an email.
The 2019 increase in reports of serious crime was part of a recent trend: 522 in 2017, 547 in 2018 and then 566 last year. All the increases were fueled by a rise in larceny reports.
Before 2017, the number of reported serious crimes in Kingston had been falling for well over a decade. The last time the number topped 1,000 was 2005, when there were 1,208.
The two homicides in 2019 were only about a week apart — on Oct. 24 and Nov. 1 — and happened just half a mile from each other in Midtown.
In the first case, Daniel Thomas, 27, was shot to death near the intersection of Cedar and Prospect streets; eight days later, Myron T. Moye, 36, was killed in the house on West O’Reilly St.
Authorities have said those two killings — as well as the fatal shooting of Stephan Dixon, 31, at the Stuyvesant Charter apartment complex on Feb. 11 — appear to be unrelated.
No arrests have been announced in any of the homicides, but an Ulster County grand jury last week handed up a sealed indictment for murder, and county District Attorney David Clegg said it involved one of the three cases.
Kingston had one homicide in 2017, none in 2016 or 2015, and two in 2014.
Other reports of serious crime in Kingston in 2019, according to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, were:
• 13 rapes, up from 11 in 2018.
• 10 robberies, down from 12.
• 43 aggravated assaults, down from 47.