Red Bank Crime Halved Over Two Decades

Since the early part of the 1990's, reported crime in Red Bank has fallen by more than 50 percent, this according to annual crime reports maintained by the borough .

Based on a crime data collection system similar to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, Red Bank Police recorded 454 crimes in 2011 for everything from assault to arson. That total represents a slight uptick from the previous year's total of 435, a relatively minor fluctuation that can be explained as the result of something as simple as a one-night car burglary spree.

Follow the report back some years, however, and the deviation from recent crime statistics grows by a significant margin. In 1990 alone, Red Bank recorded a total of 980 separate crimes, a figure that's higher than the past two years of reported crime combined.

Exactly why crime has fallen precipitately over the last two decades doesn't have a single answer. Revitalization, business growth on the west side of town, and more productive policing are all likely partly responsible for the crime drop, though it's the combination of these reasons that appears to have made it stick.

The borough's top cops, Chief Stephen McCarthy and Capt. Darren McConnell, can recall a different Red Bank then the one they protect now. When they joined the force in 1986 and 1988, respectively, McCarthy and McConnell found themselves on patrol in a town littered with downtown vacancies, a town carrying the still-stinging-stigma of being known as "Dead Bank."

Over the years, however, a Red Bank resurgence has seen the town rebranded several times over. Now, those who live in or regularly visit Red Bank are likely as familiar with the term "Dead Bank" as they are with more recent superlatives, like "Hip City," or "SoHo by the Shore." And while the retail surge as calmed and development waned in Red Bank in recent years, crime has continued to follow a downward trajectory that started more than 20 years ago.

"I'm always really careful to say crime is down because of one thing," McCarthy said. "There are so many things that go into and and I think you're over simplifying things when you say it's one thing. The town now is significantly different now, not just downtown, but all over."

More than a decade ago, McConnell said, Shrewsbury Avenue didn't have nearly the number of businesses it does now. Having storefronts occupied and people walking your streets goes a long way towards deterring crime in any town, he said. And while it's not a stretch to think that larger crowds of people coming to Red Bank to enjoy its retail establishments, restaurants, bars, and assorted nightlife could drive up crime, both the borough and the businesses have made an effort to prevent crime.

The borough's crime reports include murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Unlike the Uniform Crime Report, which only counts aggravated assault, the Red Bank Police report accounts for all assaults. The result is a cleaner and more accurate report, McCarthy said.

The two categories that see the most action, by far, are assaults and theft.

Since 1990, Red Bank has averaged 197.2 assaults and 349.4 thefts per year, though admittedly those totals are skewed more to the 1990's than the aughts.

A big reason for the decline, McCarthy believes, is the way police work is handled today.

More than 20 years ago, patrolmen road tandem. The effect was obvious. Instead of having two police officers patrolling different areas, you had two doing, essentially, the same job at the same time. Patrols are solo operations now, mostly, with a clearly defined chain of support command. Of course technology has improved too over the years. Innovations such as on-board laptops and dashboard cameras have made police work that much easier for the borough's cops.

The biggest impact is the police department's conscious effort to maintain a regular presence. Not only do regular patrols hit all points of Red Bank in cruisers on every shift, but the department has added a foot patrol to downtown and could soon add a bike patrol as soon as this summer, McCarthy said.
Increased police presence is why the borough's 40 officers - Red Bank Police Department had 43 officers in 1990 - have been able to deter criminal activity.

"Our patrol strength has been changed and it's been increased," he said. "We've really cut down on administrative spots in the department and pushed it out on to the street. It's probably the most important thing, people don't want to commit crimes if they know police are around."

Crime totals from previous years:

Crime averages since 1990: