Frank Rizzo | Democrat Monticello Police Chief Doug Solomon, at right, is hoping to replace the expired “Impact” state grants which helped bring overall crime stats down in his village. With him, are, from the left, PO Kwane Delvalle, Sgt. Mark Johnstone and PO Jason Corley.

Monticello crime rate takes a fall

By Dan Hust
MONTICELLO — January 29, 2010 — In a word, Monticello’s just-released crime statistics are “extraordinary.”
That’s how Monticello Police Chief Doug Solomon views the figures, and he’s hopeful they’ll help erase the belief that it’s not safe to walk the village’s streets.
Granted, Monticello had a murder this past summer, but according to the new state Division of Criminal Justice Services’ statistics, the village’s overall crime rate has dropped by 43 percent from 2006-2009.
Two hundred forty-one crimes were reported within village boundaries in 2009, compared with 426 in 2006. In fact, the crime rate has steadily decreased the past four years.
Violent crime did jump from 36 incidents in 2008 to 49 in 2009, but that’s still down significantly from the 75 reported in 2006.
The rate-decline winner, however, was in burglaries, which took a startling drop from 97 in 2006 and 85 in 2008 to just 35 in 2009 – a 64 percent reduction from 2006.
Solomon credited the near-$40,000 his department spent in IMPACT funds, focusing on gangs and guns in particular.
“Over 50 guns have been taken off the streets” since 2006, he noted.
The IMPACT funding has been used up, but Solomon said in its place have arrived organizations like D.R.E.A.M. Tank, CPR, YMCA, IBAM, the Boys and Girls Club, and the Monticello Central School District.
“All of that has to do with the drop in crime and keeping it down,” the chief observed.