Schenectady County had the state's highest per capita crime rate last year, rising above Niagara, New York and Erie counties.

"In spite of the numbers," Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino said Friday, "we are moving in the right direction in terms of the violent crime and the opioid epidemic."

While Schenectady County had 3,038 index crimes per 100,000 residents in 2016 — as opposed to the state's average rate of 1,904 — crime there has dropped more than 16 percent in the last five years. Nearly 1,000 fewer offenses were reported in 2016 than in 2012. Index crimes include the major offenses such as murder, rape and robbery.

"But still," Dagostino said, the state data "jumps at you."

The sheriff pointed to the city of Schenectady as the driving force behind the county's No. 1 slot. The urban center accounts for 58 percent of the county's most serious offenses.

"We are a stopping point for the drug trade (from) downstate," Dagostino said, adding that Schenectady, Albany and Rensselaer counties serve as a distribution hub for the rest of upstate New York. The other two counties' crime rates came in as No. 5 and 12, respectively, out of 62 counties statewide.

Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford said he was surprised to learn his county topped the state's charts because the city's monthly crime rates have been well below forecasts since September. He wondered if Schenectady's geography tipped the scales.

"We don't have a lot of rural areas to water down the effect city crime has on the community," he said.

Clifford also pointed to several city department policies that boost the number of serious crimes officers report to the state and federal government.

Schenectady requires its city officers to make an arrest every time an investigation uncovers domestic violence. When a victim decides not to file a criminal complaint, Clifford said many law enforcement agencies would drop the investigation. His department, he said, instead files its own complaint in order to charge the attacker.

"During a domestic situation, the victim isn't always thinking clearly," he said, adding the department has a victim advocate on staff.

Clifford said he believes the arrest of nine gang members in September will spell a calmer 2017.

The department has been short 12 officers for almost a year, the chief said. The agency recently hired seven recruits but they have six months of training before they hit the road.

Clifford said he primarily blames the vacancies on the strict civil service rules. When the agency declined to hire several candidates who had passed the exam, he said many refused to sign off the list, blocking the department from seeing new names. Clifford said he eventually opted to go without until the next rotation.

"From past experience of hiring below our standards, we learned our lesson," Clifford said.

The chief added he'll work to make his department more efficient in the meantime because "our officers already work very hard on a daily basis."

To that end, Clifford said he's planning to update the records and case management systems and create a system that maps out non-emergency calls, so "we'll get to them when that location comes up on our patrol pattern."

Other factors

Saratoga County, which also borders Schenectady, ranked No. 50. Compared to its northern neighbor, Schenectady County is more diverse, less affluent and densely populated.

The county crime rates, published annually by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, were calculated using county population estimates collected by the U.S. Census and the number of crimes police in each county reported to DCJS.

The data is based on index crimes, a designation that encompasses the seven violent and property offenses tracked by the FBI nationwide. The list includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Dagostino said the opioid epidemic "drives the crime" in Schenectady County, including the most serious offenses. Three years ago, he formed a narcotics unit within the sheriff's department and ordered the investigators to be "very aggressive in attacking" the network of drug distribution, he said.

The sheriff also identified persistent gang issues, which city police and county deputies have teamed up to combat, as an accellerant for crime. He said the county's most successful intervention program is One Life To Live, which employs formerly incarcerated people as case managers and violence interrupters.

"They identify people on the cusp or in the middle of violent crime ... and direct them towards services that will keep them from that type of lifestyle," Dagostino said. The program is modeled after Chicago's CeaseFire, which has been replicated across the country, including in Albany.

Chief Clifford agreed with Dagostino, saying the opioid epidemic is especially fueling burglaries and larcenies in a city with extensive street parking, absentee landlords and large housing units with shared, unlocked entrances.

