New Data Shows Slight Decrease In Crimes Reported In Norwalk: Police

NORWALK, CT — A newly released statewide crime report indicates the city of Norwalk saw a 7.7 percent decrease in crimes reported per 1,000 residents in 2023, according to police.

In a news release, Police Sgt. Ryan Evarts said the Connecticut State Police Crimes Analysis Unit published its 2023 annual report on the Uniform Crime Reporting program Wednesday.

According to Evarts, local and state law enforcement agencies submit crime statistics through the National IncidentBased Reporting System, and the data is used to create the state-based crime analysis.

The analysis reports on three major fields of incidents, Evarts said.

The following breakdown of the data pertaining to Norwalk was provided by Evarts:

• Crimes against persons (murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, assault, sex offenses and human trafficking).
  • The number of crimes against persons reported in the City of Norwalk decreased by 5 percent, while the incidents decreased by 3.8 percent statewide from 2022 data.
• Crimes against property (theft, burglary, forgery, vandalism, extortion, motor vehicle theft and robbery).
  
  • The number of crimes against property in the city of Norwalk decreased by 11.8 percent, while incidents increased statewide by 11.0 percent from 2022 data.
• Crimes against society (animal cruelty, narcotic violations, gambling, pornography and weapon law violations).
  • The number of crimes against society in the city of Norwalk increased by 93 percent, while the number reported statewide decreased by 2.2 percent from 2022 data.

According to Evarts, a large portion of the data that compromises crimes against society is attributable to the department's self-initiated efforts to investigate illegal narcotics and weapon violations conducted by the Special Services Division.

"The increase in this category is primarily due to self-initiated arrests and investigations," Evarts said, "in response to a dramatic uptick in residents' complaints and intelligence of illegal sales of marijuana and unlawful THC products from vape and smoke shops in the city."

Overall, the city saw a 7.7 percent decrease in crimes reported per 1,000 residents, from 41.4 in 2022 to 38.2 in 2023, according to Evarts.

Mayor Harry Rilling commended the Norwalk Police Department for its efforts to reduce crime across the city.

"The Connecticut Statewide Crime Report shows that crime in Norwalk is down in major fields, such as crimes against persons and crimes against properties," Rilling said in a news release, "outpacing statewide decreases in these areas and demonstrating that our community policing programs, investments in full-time embedded clinicians, proactive narcotics initiatives and community service family navigator programs are working.

Rilling also highlighted the city's Community Police Services Division, which he said aims to proactively reduce crime by building relationships with the community to enhance safety and quality of life in Norwalk's neighborhoods.

"In 2022, we hired the city's first embedded clinician within the police department to continue strengthening community connections by providing a trauma-informed perspective to crisis interventions," Rilling said. "The work our police department is doing every day in our community to establish meaningful collaboration and trust between police officers and members of the community is successfully reducing crime, and I'm very proud of all the department's efforts."