With six murders last year, Reading hit a 19-year low

READING - Six murders were committed in Reading last year, the lowest in the city for nearly two decades and only one-fourth the number of homicides just two years earlier.

You'd have to go back to 1988, when there were five homicides, to find fewer city murders in a single year, Police Chief William M. Heim said.

"It's really promising," Heim said.

It marked the second straight year that homicides have declined in Reading. The city had nine murders in 2006 and 24 in 2005.

Arrests were made in two of the six homicides of 2007. One of the others was ruled a murder-suicide.

Reading typically has more murders than all other Berks County municipalities combined, but not last year. There were nine murders in the rest of the county, not including Reading, last year.

The 2007 statistics reflect a significant drop in gun violence, Heim said.

He credited police officers who have begun focusing more on problem areas, such as those around bars and clubs near closing time. He also credited a department philosophy to pursue relentlessly the small percentage of criminals who commit violent crimes.

Nonfatal shootings also were significantly lower for the year and could be the lowest total in more than a decade, the chief said.

Heim said he would have more to say about the decline in serious crime after the department finishes compiling its year-end statistics for the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

Heim was Reading's chief from February 1997 to January 2000, when he became Lancaster's police chief. He began his second stint as Reading chief in February 2006.

Crystal A. Seitz, director of the Greater Reading Convention & Visitors Bureau, said she hoped the latest data would counteract apprehensions people may have about coming to Reading.

She cited a 2005 list that said Reading was the most dangerous city in Pennsylvania based on FBI crime statistics. Reading officials claimed the ranking was skewed because of a soaring number of car thefts that year. The city's ranking improved in a later report.