This article was originally published on GoErie.com on July 6, 2018

Several categories of crime in Erie, including shots fired calls, the number of people shot and robberies committed with a firearm, have declined in the first six months of 2018 when compared with the same period a year ago, according to the Erie Bureau of Police.

Mayor Joe Schember discussed the statistics during his weekly news conference at City Hall on Thursday morning.

Schember said that, according to police data, police received 66 reports of gunshots being fired in the city from Jan. 1 through June 30. During the same three-month period in 2017, 109 shots-fired reports were received by police. That’s a reduction of 39 percent.

There were 44 robberies committed with a firearm in the first six months of 2017; through March, 20 have been reported, a reduction of 55 percent.

City police also said 15 people have been shot in the city through the first six months of 2018, compared to 34 people struck by gunfire during the same period last year, Schember said.

There were three homicides in the city between January and the end of June; there were seven in the first six months of 2017.

Aggravated assaults are also down this year compared to the first three months of 2017, but the number of firearms stolen and robberies with a knife have increased, according to city police.