WILMINGTON — At a news conference Monday, Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings applauded statistics revealing a significant reduction in the state’s violent crime rate.
In 2022, such crimes reached their lowest numbers since tracking began in 2008, according to Statistical Analysis Center reports. The figures indicated a 40% drop in violent incidents over those 14 years.
Ms. Jennings specifically highlighted gun violence, which fell more than 20% from 2020-23. She added that homicides and aggravated assaults increased sharply when the pandemic arrived but have dropped since.
But since then, she said, “our No. 1 focus in the Department of Justice and throughout police departments in our state has been to prevent gun crimes and to hold those who commit violent gun offenses accountable for their actions.”
Leaders from multiple law enforcement agencies joined the attorney general in a roughly 20-minute presentation to media inside the Carvel State Office Building on Monday.
The officials also noted a 23% decline in shootings in Dover and a 56% drop in murders in Wilmington since the pandemic began.