DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) — The Dayton Police Department is reporting an increase in youth violence.
From January to the end of April this year, Assistant Chief Eric Henderson says there have already been 4 young people under the age of 18 to die from homicide. There were just 10 youth homicide victims in all of 2024.
“Combining homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies all together, there was 134 victims last year which is a 24%, you know, increase, you know, over the previous year and highest in the previous five years, so these trends are alarming,” said Assistant Chief Henderson.
In his 6 years as Assistant Chief, Henderson said he’s noticed these increases and is treating this crisis as a public health issue that can’t be treated by enforcement only. That’s why Dayton Police has been working with the Mayor’s Office on a Peace Campaign to address violence, especially in young people.
“We provided data to point out where our highest hotspots have been over the last five years with some of these violent crimes, and then using outreach workers and violence interrupters to go out to the community, that have lived experience so that they can relate to some of the the individuals that are out committing the crime,” said Assistant Chief Henderson.
He said DPD will be enforcing the 11pm curfew for unaccompanied minors. They will also be enforcing the nuisance party law that allows officers to break up out of control gatherings. DPD officers will also be participating in several summer camps. But Assistant Chief Henderson said they need the residents to pay attention to red flags that could be indicators of violent behaviors.
“What’s alarming is we’ll encounter a youth that has a gun and if you go back and look at the social media and look at things, they’re posting publicly that they’re having guns in hand. There’s no way that a friend or cousin or an adult’s not seeing that. Please intervene before something bad happens and, I think that’s my plea to the community,” added Assistant Chief Henderson.
Prevention is DPD’s focus going into this summer when instances of gun violence do tend to occur more often.
