HAUPPAUGE – County Executive Steve Levy and Police Commissioner Richard Dormer unveiled statistics released last week by the New York State Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) that show early signs of success for Suffolk’s efforts to tackle violent crime.

Robberies and aggravated assault – two categories which had experienced an uptick in the first half of 2009 – have decreased thus far in the second half of the year, according to the officials. Murder, rape, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts are continuing to trend down during this period as well.

Levy noted that overall crime and violent crime have been reduced in Suffolk County since he came into office in January of 2004. While overall crime was down for the first half of 2009 compared to 2008, there was an uptick in two categories of violent crime – robberies and aggravated assault – which led Commissioner Dormer to implement a number of measures, including consolidating anti-gang officers into a comprehensive gang suppression unit and redeploying personnel into hot spots.

As a result, violent crime in September 2009 was down 13.4 percent compared to September 2008. Robberies, which had increased in the first half of 2009, were reduced by 9.7 percent in September of 2009 compared to September of 2008. And aggravated assaults are down 12.4 percent over that same period. Burglaries, larcenies, rapes and motor vehicle thefts were all down during this September comparison.

Police officials pointed out that while a one-month sampling of statistics can vary greatly from month to month, the September figures are cited to illustrate the larger, second-half downward trend.

According to Dormer, the Police Special Operations Team (PSOT), which is deployed to hot spots in various communities throughout the year, has removed 58 guns from the streets so far this year, and made 361 arrests – including more than 150 for gang activity.