MILWAUKEE, Wis. (WTAQ) - Major crimes in Wisconsin’s largest city are down 9 percent from a year ago. The Milwaukee Police Department said violent crime from January through March was down 16 percent from last year – and there were 40 percent fewer violent incidents than in 2007.

Also, police said crime went down for 9 straight quarters – and it’s gone down every quarter since Ed Flynn became Milwaukee’s police chief in 2008. Flynn and other police officials point to several possible reasons – a bigger presence of officers in high crime neighborhoods, the use of real time data to watch for trends, and more cooperation between the department’s patrol and detective bureaus.