TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is slated to participate in a town hall forum event in New York City Monday evening during a televised event regarding crime reduction tactics across the U.S.
The forum, which will be broadcast on "Chris Cuomo" between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on NewsNation, includes mayors and law enforcement professionals who will speak about crime in American cities. They will also take questions from a studio audience and from remote audiences in Chicago and the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Per police report statistics and several statements by Kapszukiewicz, the city of Toledo has seen a significant drop in many categories of crime between 2022 and 2023. There are 33% fewer homicides in Toledo in 2023 than this time last year, officials said in a press release.
"I'm looking forward to sharing Toledo's success story with a national audience," Kapszukiewicz said in a statement. "We’ve grown the size of our police force, added foot patrols, invested in youth programming, eliminated blight and made long-term investments in neighborhoods. Our plan doesn’t involve any one thing; it involves everything — and the data shows that it is working.”
By July 31, 2022, there had been 33 homicides, more than halfway to the total for that year of 65 homicides. As of July 31, 2023, there had been 18 total homicides.
Though Toledo has seen a significant reduction in homicides during the first half of 2023, juveniles have been the victims of homicides at a disproportionate rate: nine of the 18 homicides have been juveniles, while eight of them were between 14 and 17 years old. By comparison, 2022 saw nine juvenile homicides for the entire year.
Other categories of crime measured by the Toledo police department have also seen a reduction, according to officials. In a statement regarding his appearance on NewsNation, Kapsukiewicz said all categories of crime measured by Toledo police have seen a decrease, barring auto thefts.
However, in a biannual community safety report measuring crime incidents between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2023, Toledo police reported shooting incidents have also gone up from the same period of time in 2022 from 740 to 846 - an increase of 14.3%.
RELATED: Heatherdowns neighbor reacts to Toledo's 18th homicide of 2023 happening yards from his doorstep
Kapsukiewicz has said the increase in shooting incident reports stems from additional ShotSpotter devices implemented around the city, and maintains that all types of violent crime have decreased in the aforementioned comparable period.
This also comes as the city reorganizes its safety department. In late May, Kapszukiewicz created a new organization to tackle violence. Shortly after, Safety Director Brian Byrd announced his retirement after a year on the job, on top of several other changes prior to that.
MORE LOCAL HEADLINES FROM WTOL 11