BUFFALO (WBEN) - This month's virtual D-District Chief's meeting was packed with roughly 100 Elmwood Village residents who are concerned about an uptick in crime in their neighborhood.
Elmwood Village is known as the area of the city from Forest to W. Ferry and Delaware to Richmond.
However, D-District Chief Joseph Fahey explained that the crime statistics are within what's considered to be normal parameters when compared to the last six years.
As for robberies:
-2015 (16)
-2016 (15)
-2017 (17)
-2018 (10)
-2019 (9)
-2020 (7)
As for assaults:
-2015 (8)
-2016 (12)
-2017 (9)
-2018 (13)
-2019 (13)
-2020 (12)
As for year-to-date statistics on robberies (January 1 - February 3):
-2016 (1)
-2017 (4)
-2018 (0)
-2019 (0)
-2020 (0)
-2021 (1)
As for year-to-date statistics on assaults (January 1 - February 3):
-2016 (0)
-2017 (0)
-2018 (2)
-2019 (2)
-2020 (3)
-2021 (0)
For clarification, the stabbing that occurred last week near Elmwood and W. Ferry technically occurred outside Elmwood Village, which is why that incident doesn't appear on these statistics, but Fahey did note that it happened extremely close to the border of D-District and B-District.
"This month, D-District got 18 additional officers...it's been a great addition - we'll be able to use them in problem areas, and from there, we'll go on," said Fahey. "We've had park-and-walks in every sector that we have with a little bit of extra attention on Elmwood Avenue and the Elmwood Village."
However, there appears to be a perceived disconnect between the statistics that Fahey shared during the meeting and what residents are experiencing or hearing from the neighborhood grapevine.
"I think one of the things that's happening is that we're hearing that somebody was robbed at gunpoint at Elmwood and Lancaster, someone was robbed at gunpoint at the 7-11, but the robbery statistic is only one," said one concerned resident during the meeting. "I think there's some tension between the community where we hear statistics say there's no uptick, whereas we are, as block club leaders and community leaders, hearing from people from people this actually has happened to, many more incidents than just one."
"There's a lot of things that have not been reported that I've been seeing constantly in my area such as car break-ins, gas siphoning," said Elmwood Village resident Nicole Zambito. "Saturday night going into Sunday, around 1:30 a.m., on my street there were eight cop cars - yelling, flashlights - I still have no idea what happened."
Fahey encouraged residents to continue reporting incidents to the police, and he also urged people to use caution in the area. He noted that their district is working in collaboration with other districts to compare similar crimes.
