Well, after spending years dubbed as one of the most dangerous cities in New Jersey, Newark is riding a new streak, logging an overall drop in violent crime and the lowest homicide rates for the city in more than 60 years.

State and Newark leaders today touted the improvements and hailed their approach to treating violence and trauma as a public health issue as the main reason they've been able to chip away at crime in Brick City.

But can it be maintained?

Melissa Rose Cooper reports.

Young people, they need to understand that the situations don't dictate the destination.

Destination they can, but it doesn't have to be a message out to request once kids passing through the hub arts and trauma center in Newark to know.

For the last 17 years, the founder and CEO of the city's first youth focused trauma recovery center has been providing a place for young adults to escape their problems in their community while engaging in activities meant to lift them up.

I want you guys to understand how is how important it is for you to see the light come on in these young people's face when you get to see them dream again, when their behaviors start to change because somebody's loved on them.

The hub is one of several organizations in Newark being credited for helping to curb crime in the city through partnerships with the Newark Police Department and the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery.

We've done over 400 mediations.

We've been able to help recover stolen cars and missing children at a rate that is unprecedented in conjunction with our partners and ultimately doing the work alongside law enforcement and doing the work that law enforcement cannot do.

And this is relationship based work.

And so our partners behind us are the people that we have relationships with, and we would not be able to do it without them.

Public safety director Fritz Frazier announcing today the city has seen a drastic reduction in violent crimes.

You will see that in 2014, Newark police had reported 95 murders.

There is 51 that is a 51% decrease from 95 to 47.

In 2022 24.

Comparing murders from 2023 to 2022.

We show a 8% decrease from 51 murders last year.

To 47 murders this year in 2023.

And I am pleased to report that our homicide close out rate which is the number of homicides resolved by arrest is 81% this year which is phenomenal for our detectives.

Data also shows a 13% decrease in non-fatal shooting incidents in 2023 compared to last year as well as a 9% drop in aggravated assaults in the middle of the year.

We were experiencing a serious uptick in the middle of the year and I think the evidence has shown that when we collectively work together law enforcement here that you see on stage all of these folks that are here and all the folks out there, when we work collectively, not only can we stop a disaster from continuing to take place, we can reverse that and begin to see a positive outcome.

It's a whole entire ecosystem outside, and it's called Newark.

We all work working collaboratively, all the neighborhoods that, you know, had all these false narratives about how we going back and forth with each other.

I mean, these numbers is a testament that that's a myth, right?

Now.

We may have some one offs where people have not made disputes that they don't know how to handle.

And, you know, so whenever we had these one of, you know, our job as harvest intervention is to make sure that the narrative is what it is.

It's one of 50 new police officers were also added to the city this year.

Community advocates say they look forward to continuing the work alongside law enforcement.

So the streets are safer for everyone.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Melissa Rose Cooper.