Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis is crediting the community as a whole for the drop in violent crime in the city of Peoria in 2008. Last year when July 1st rolled around the city had seen 13 homicides. There has only been one in 2008. That was the death of five month old Benjamin Sergeant in February. His parents have been arrested in that case.

Mayor Ardis said it is hard to judge a city's crime rate by how many homicides have occurred, but he said the people in Peoria have stepped up to make it a safer place to live. He said this wouldn't work without a combined effort from the police department, city council and community members. Ardis applauded the efforts of people like Carl Cannon and the faith based community. That also includes organizations like the Dream Center.

Ardis says this has been an ongoing process for the last three years to make the community safer. There ended up being 18 homicides in 2007. Peoria Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard is planning to release the official crime statistics for the first half of 2008 in the next couple of weeks.