TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz and Toledo Police Chief Michael Troendle held a press conference Wednesday to announce the city's 2024 third-quarter crime statistics, showing a reported decrease in several categories compared to last year.
According to the city, there has been a 16% drop in homicides, a 12% drop in auto thefts, a 5% drop in robberies, a 26% drop in thefts from a motor vehicle and a 1% drop in persons shot compared to this time last year.
Burglaries saw a slight 0.2% increase this year compared to 2023.
"There is no question that the story of Toledo this year is the incredible progress we are making when it comes to reducing all kinds of crime, but in particular violent crime," Kapszukiewicz said at the press conference Wednesday.
Troendle said more suspects are being arrested when it comes to shootings and homicides, citing a 93% homicide clearance rate in 2024 compared to a national average of "50-55%."
"We are doing a great job investigating these homicides, these shootings and making sure that we are actually apprehending those responsible," Troendle said. "What I feel is a part of our big success in reducing our shootings, our homicides is the fact that we have arrested a lot of right people and those are currently behind bars. That has had a positive impact on our community."
"We don't want any homicides. Each one of those individuals represents a human life and someone who had people who loved him or her," Kapszukiewicz said. "Our goal is to not rest until those numbers are at zero. Even as we intellectually understand that that's probably unlikely to happen in any community in this country, that's still our goal."
Troendle added that the community has played a part in the reported reduction in crime
"The reality is we couldn't do that job without our community," Troendle said. "Our community has continually stepped up over the last couple of years and helped us on these investigations. Nobody knows their neighborhood better than the people that live there.
"Do we still have issues out there? Yeah, absolutely we do. There's no doubt about it," Troendle added. "But living in a major city is something that we're always going to have issues. It's something we have to continually find ways to address it and develop plans to make sure we can deliver the best product that we can."