Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the city is safer today than it was one year ago, evident in a double-digit decrease in crime.

Woodfin and Police Chief Patrick Smith this week released the latest crime numbers which show a drop in every category from homicide to theft. “I have the expectation it will get safer every day, every month, every year,’’ Woodfin said on the city’s podcast, Magic City Mondays. “Where we are in 2019 is nowhere near where we were in 2018, and for 2020 we have an expectation that crime will continue to decrease.”

According to the department’s numbers, homicides are down from 90 at this time last year to 80 as of this week, for an 11.1 percent decrease. So far this year, there have been 90 people to die by violence in Birmingham but 10 of those have been ruled justifiable. Police departments only have to submit criminal homicides to the FBI for year-analysis of numbers.

Here is a look at the other violent crime numbers:

- Police have investigated 144 reports of rape in 2019, compared to 154 at this time last year for a 6.5 percent decrease.

- Police have investigated 683 reports of robbery in 2019, compared to 850 at this time last year for a 19.6 percent decrease.

- Police have investigated 2,567 aggravated assaults in 2019, compared to 2,977 at this time last year for a 13.8 percent decrease.

Overall, 3,474 violent crimes have been investigated this year, compared to 4,071 at this time last year for a decrease of 14.7 percent.

Burglary accounts for largest property crime decrease so far this year. Detectives have investigated 2,135 burglaries so far this year, compared to 2,424 at this time last year for an 11.0 decrease.

The other categories are:

- Police have investigated 1,770 reports of auto theft this year compared to 1,772 at this time last year for a 0.1 percent decrease.

- Police have investigated 2,111 incidents of unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle, compared to 2,216 at this time last year for a 4.7 percent decrease.

- Police have investigated 5,637 thefts compared to 6,325 at this time last year for a 10.9 percent decrease.

Total property crimes – 11,653 in 2019 compared to 12,737 in 2018 – have dropped 8.5 percent. Overall, for both violent crimes and property crimes, the city stands at a 10 percent decrease.

The number of calls of shots fired is at 1,051 this year compared to 1,274 for a 17.5 percent decrease.

Police officials say a multi-faceted, methodical approach is helping to bring about the reduction. “I really attribute the decrease to what I call community-focused, data-driven crime suppression,’’ said Birmingham police Deputy Chief Darnell Davenport.

Part of the success comes from enhanced working relationships with other agencies, such as the federal Public Safety Partnership.

The National Public Safety Partnership was launched in 2017 in response to President Trump's directive to reduce crime and improve public safety. Then- Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the National Public Safety Partnership, an alliance of local and federal law enforcement agencies coordinating with community organizations to reduce violent crime in areas long plagued by it. The Attorney General selected Birmingham as one of the initial 12 PSP sites.

The effort provides a framework for enhancing federal support of state, local and tribal law enforcement officials and prosecutors as they aggressively investigate and pursue violent criminals, specifically those involved in gun crime, drug trafficking and gang violence.

“They usually spend a lot more time in federal custody than they do in local prosecutions,’’ Davenport said. “By them being given more time, it’s going to have a greater impact on our sustainability for crime reduction.”

Davenport said the police department is engaging the community in ways they have no previously done so. He cited Peace in the Park as an example of broadened community outreach. The Birmingham Police Department and the Mayor’s Office of Peace and Policy Crime Reduction working group suggested that Legion Field be open on Friday nights during the summer, during high-crime hours, to provide a place where community members could engage in peaceful recreational activities. The rec centers were added to expand the reach of the program across the city. Basketball, swimming, music and games were offered at the rec centers as part of the program.

Officers, he said, are spending more time interacting with various community and neighborhood groups. “Consequently, in the past where community members may not have cooperated, they’re cooperating more,’’ he said.

There has been an increased focused on investigating crimes the department traditionally did not focus on previously. “Those are very low-lying crimes that people report to us. We’re doing a lot more with the crimes than we did in the past,’’ he said. “As a result of addressing domestic violence, menacing when there’s a gun involved, what we’re able to do is prevent serious crimes from occurring because we’re able to get those people in custody before they actually use the gun in terms of shooting somebody.”

Technology is playing a big role in the department’s crime suppression efforts and is expected to play an even bigger role in the months and years to come. The department is working to open a Real Time Crime Center. Officials approved $1.5 million in the City of Birmingham’s capital budget to build a state-of-the art intelligence-led command center.

Also this year, the department re-instituted Compstat, short for computerized statistics, and added in daily Crime Control meetings.

Davenport said their license plate recognition system will go live on Dec. 1. “It has not been used to the extent that it should have been used,’’ he said. He said he looked at the weekend report from the department’s strategically-placed readers and was astounded at what he saw. There were 150 hits, which means that cars being sought – whether reported stolen or known to have a driver or owner who is wanted – was picked up by the readers. “I was shocked by the number of hits,’’ he said. “Now we’re going to start giving our officers situational awareness as to when those cars pass by so they can look for those cars and try to stop those.”

“We’re using technology a lot more efficiently,’’ Davenport said. “It is allowing us to apprehend suspects in a more expeditious manner.”

Increased manpower is also a factor. Since Smith took over as chief in June 2018, he has hired roughly 240 officers. “That many officers have not been hired in more than a decade,’’ Davenport said. Additionally, there are currently two police academy classes currently underway and four scheduled for 2020.

“We also have a lot of officers attempting to later in, because we’re just moving forward,’’ Davenport said. That means that police officers from other agencies are requesting to move to the Birmingham Police Department.

As the holiday season approaches, there likely will be an increase in property crimes. Davenport says they are prepared. “Our emphasis for the past several months has been the violent crime picture but now we’re going to change our emphasis to property crimes,’’ he said. “Right now, we’ll continue to see a downward trend in violent crimes, but we’ll start to see an upward trend in property crimes. Because of that, we now are going to deploy to deal with that.”

Police investigators just finished a three-year analysis on thefts. “Based on that analysis, I can tell you when thefts are going to occur at Walmart, for example,’’ he said. “Not only can I tell you when they’re going to occur, I can tell you within what hour they will occur.”

“Based on that, we’re putting people out there,’’ he said. “The places where we keep having problems, we’ve identified them, and we know exactly when we need to be there.”

“You have to be really intentional in what you’re doing and know what information to look at and how to use that information to be effective,’’ he said. “Our expectation is that we’re going to continue to see crime suppression into 2020 and that we are now designing the systems that will allow us to sustain crime reduction.”