NEWARK, Del. (AP) - The Newark Police Department says crime in the city has decreased by 48 percent since 2006.
The News Journal in Wilmington reports that the department credits targeted policing, a network of surveillance cameras and increased community policing as factors behind the decrease.
Police Chief Paul Tiernan says that when he joined the force in September 2007, many armed robberies and other crimes were occurring at off-campus housing for the University of Delaware.
Tiernan developed a plan focusing on the fall, when college students return to campus and are most likely to become crime victims.
He says the plan has continued to work. From 2014 to 2015, the city saw a 9 percent decrease in robberies, an 18 percent decrease in aggravated assaults and a 27 percent decrease in burglaries.