Police say crime is on a downward trend in reading it diligent police work they say is needed to keep that trend going in january reading police unveiled a new crime fighting strategy it came on the heels of a stretch of violence and the year that saw spike in homicides as you the terror winfrey is live at the ready police headquarters with the story cantera.

>>rob and wendy police, a crime and so are broken down into 8 categories some of the categories have remained flat but overall all crime-scene a 28% decrease in the first 4 months of this year compared to the same time period.

Last year.

>>reading police enter 2019 with a new crime fighting strategy after the city saw spike in homicides the previous deputy chief osborne robinson laid out the strategy which has 3 parts leadership accountability affective resource deployment.

>>and community engagement we've had some bumps in the road and we've had some successes.

>>and a broken down into 8 categories compared to the first 4 months of 2018.

The city has seen a 28% decrease in overall crime in 2019.

Robinson says police department leaders began evaluating crime statistics weekly he says the work is paying off by the end >>a january mid february a lot about their burglaries were happening doing the midnight shift and so the midnight shift commander got his his his team really engaged.

>>as a result he says burglaries have seen the largest dropped.

We're 171 burglaries the 1st quarter of last year.

>>this year for the same period that number is down to 71.

Both year sought to homicide cases in the 1st quarter but 2019 has seen fewer victims as one of the homicides in 2018 had 4 victims. >>we have to remain vigilant to again it is just the 1st we have work to do.

>>and as for the community engagement part of the plan.

Robinson says police had visited multiple schools, libraries and barbershops the goal is to get out there and engage the community to try to help improve a police