29-03-2025
‘We're going backward:' Rochester police link social media to violent crime trends
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – The Rochester Police Department's Major Crimes Unit is sharing more information about the role social media is playing in connection to violent crime across the city.
RPD Captain Frank Umbrino spoke with News 8's Natalie Kucko for a broader conversation on the trends the department is seeing in their investigations today compared to previous years.
'I think social media is the cause of many of our investigations today,' said Capt. Umbrino.
So far in 2025, the city of Rochester has recorded seven homicides. Four of those cases are now closed, according to the Rochester Police Department's Open Data Portal.
While overall violent crime is trending down in recent years, Capt. Umbrino says the influence of social media in connection to specifically shootings and stolen property crimes is not improving.
'We're going backwards and we're destroying an entire generation of children. Your 14-year-old of today is not like your 14-year-old of 15 to 20 years ago. I'll go back to what I have said about as recently as a few weeks ago – the parents up here in tears are begging for help and because of the reforms put into place over the last couple of years, we can't provide them with the help they need and it's frustrating,' he said.
As social media, in my cases, has become the foundation of the Major Crimes Unit's work, Capt. Umbrino says suspects are utilizing features like location sharing where feuds can escalate.
'We have young people out there that are sharing their locations and looking for a gun fight. They're sharing it with people they're feuding with and saying, 'We're here. Come and get us.' That's a cause for a lot of the gun fights we might have. Something needs to happen. Anyone can get on social media and see fights all the time. Do the kids need to be seeing that? No,' said Capt. Umbrino.
Umbrino adds the only immediate change he's seeing city-wide is the growing frustration among community members.
'There needs to be ramifications for actions. When you have kids who are stealing cars for example, and they get caught doing it and absolutely nothing happens to them, they're going to go out and do it again because it's fun. It's fun for them to drive around at 100 miles per hour because they think they're playing a video game. They don't understand the ramifications their actions may have, potentially for the rest of their lives. Or, God forbid, the rest of somebody else's life because they've killed them, which we have seen here in our community,' he said.
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