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Rockford Mayor Touts Drop In Violent Crime, But Says There's More To Do

Guy Stephens/ WNIJ

Rockford’s mayor wishes his city’s fire department wasn’t the second-busiest in Illinois. But he’s pleased about a big drop in violent crimes. 

Tom McNamara said, for the first four months of the year, the city’s fire department has seen an increase in total calls compared to the same period last year, with a 26 percent increase in fire calls.

The city’s crime statistics are more positive. Statistics for January to April of this year show a significant drop in violent crime compared to the same time last year, 22 percent overall. Aggravated battery with shots fired fell 35 percent. And there was a 34 percent drop in robberies. MacNamara says it’s been a group effort. 

“I’ve been pretty thrilled with the work that our police department’s doing,” he said. “And probably equally or more thrilled with the commitment that our entire council had had to public safety.”     

But he said it’s only a start.

“We are not going to fix the crime problem overnight. No matter what happens this year, I can guarantee you we will have a lot more work to do next year. So my goal is that we continue to move in the right direction.”

Credit City of Rockford

McNamara said involvement by members of the community has been and will be key to making that happen.

Guy Stephens produces news stories for the station, and coordinates our online events calendar, PSAs and Arts Calendar announcements. In each of these ways, Guy helps keep our listening community informed about what's going on, whether on a national or local level. Guy's degrees are in music, and he spent a number of years as a classical host on WNIU. In fact, after nearly 20 years with Northern Public Radio, the best description of his job may be "other duties as required."