By Pat Kimbrough

High Point Enterprise

HIGH POINT — High Point’s drop in homicides last year was part of a reduction in overall crime.

Statistics aren’t official yet, but police said they expect the numbers to show a 6 percent decrease in violent crime and a 13 percent dip in property crime compared to 2008.

“Huge reductions in burglary, larceny and auto theft,” said police Chief Jim Fealy. “Especially with the economy the way it has been, the property crime number is incredible.”

The city’s 2009 homicide tally was the lowest since at least 1990. Police said statistics prior to that year are unavailable.

Other cities have reported drastic reductions in homicides for 2009. They were down about 30 percent in Charlotte, while New York reported its fewest killings since it began keeping records. For the first half of 2009, homicides reportedly fell 10 percent nationwide compared with the same period in 2008.

Experts point to several factors that appear to be having an impact on the data from a national standpoint. For one, studies that have estimated that the homicide rate could be as much as five times higher in the absence of innovations in trauma care and emergency medicine, according to Steve Gunkel, associate professor of sociology and director of the criminal justice program at Greensboro College.

“Factoring in some impact for gun control, ’younger brother syndrome’ and problem-oriented policing, these too may be helping to pull the violent crime rate in general and homicides in particular in a promising direction,” said Gunkel.

Locally, officials cited the increased capacity of the High Point Community Against Violence as a factor in the homicide decline. Executive Director Jim Summey completed his first full year in the post.