Richmond County Sheriff’s Office records show the number of shootings and shooting deaths in Augusta have decreased from previous years, which officials attribute to consistent effort targeting areas most vulnerable to violent crime.

At the end of July, The Augusta Chronicle reported that if Augusta experienced the same number of shootings from August through December as in 2022, the number of shootings in 2023 would surpass previous records, reaching 354 shootings.

However, as of Dec. 1, 29 people were killed in Augusta shootings and 280 shootings were reported, falling well below totals for the second half of 2022.

During the same timeframe in 2022, there were 296 shootings in Augusta and 36 shooting deaths, according to previous reporting. In 2021, there were 266 shootings and 26 shooting death. In 2020, there were 211 shootings and 37 shooting deaths.

The trend coincides with FBI data, which suggests violent crime dropped nationwide this year.

“The majority of the gun violence that we’re getting is in certain areas that we’ve classified as ‘hotspot areas,'” said Chief Deputy Calvin Chew with the sheriff’s office. “We implemented hotspot policing several years ago, where we identify certain crimes in certain areas and then use the information that we gathered from our intelligence and have our deputies flood that area.”

In follow-up questions asked late last week to learn more about the locations of “hotspot areas,” no one at the sheriff’s office was immediately available to provide clarification.

Chew said it can take time to implement the new style of policing, but it is now bearing positive results.

“Whenever our deputies are not on a call or they’re not busy doing something else, they go in their hotspot areas and stay in those areas as much as possible, which deters crime,” he said. “Of course, gun violence is something that we’ve been tackling for years and we tried to come up with a plan to combat that, but we’re still always looking for new, innovative ways of doing better policing.”

While the number of shootings is still high, Chew said they usually occur in areas where criminal activity is prevalent.

“It’s not that the county isn’t safe. The county is safe,” he said. “It’s usually people that are in those hotspot areas that are doing criminal activities. Those are the people that we’re trying to target and get out of our communities.”

The sheriff’s office announced two large gang-related undercover operations this year that yielded dozens of arrests in some of the hotspot areas.

“Those projects have assisted us in quieting that element from causing us more concern in our community,” Chew said. “And we plan on doing several more.”

While he couldn’t get into the details of ongoing undercover operations, he said they are actively working on dismantling Augusta gangs and combatting their violence.

“We’re constantly targeting our gang area, as well as gun violence, and that’s something that we will continue to do,” Chew said. “We just want people to know that we’re always here and we’re always going to be doing what is best for the community. We’re always going to be striving to do more, to make sure that our citizens are safe.”

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This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta shootings, murders decreased in 2023