Detroit has 252 homicides recorded for the year 2023 the lowest number since 1966. Certainly a 18% drop is worth celebrating but the rate per 100k at 39.4 there’s still a lot of work to be done. Comparatively the 1960 census put Detroits population at 1.67 million and in 1966 the homicide rate was at 12.8% putting the year 2023 just over triple the rate of ‘66.
Nationally Detroit has done well comparatively well with a 13% average drop in homicides in the top 30 cities though looking at micro and macro trends in the short, medium and long terms helps frame the situation better as will the trends of the coming year. The city received state help clearing up a backlog of gun cases which had become a major problem with the pandemic shutting down the courts. While Detroit didn’t see a large spike during ‘21 & ‘22 it did see an increase losing ground from the relatively stable levels from 2017-2020.
The society pressures of the greatest recession in US history certainly played a role in pushing violent crime up. At the very least the typical socioeconomic problems we’ve been dealing with for generations were exacerbated by putting a strain on people’s mental health. Losing family members and an economic shutdown during the pandemic that saw national GDP passing the post WW2 demobilization recession certainly led to increasing desperation the closer one was to the margins of society.
There’s been an overall long term national trend of violent crime falling over the past 10 or so years, Detroit for example had slightly more homicides in 2017 which was the first time the city saw the lowest rate since ‘66. However I digress there’s been a lot of back and forth on this topic especially with a new city every few years getting the murder city treatment by the media so there’s no need to rehash old arguments without new data.
What I can add to the topic with local input is that Detroit has struggled with shootings downtown in ‘21 & ‘22 a relatively new phenomenon as crowd management was completely easy in Detroit with sports events, concerts / annual events making it easier to focus resources during busy times.
As downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods have become more vibrant with downtown returning to its traditional position as a regional and local commons for entertainment and nightlife it’s possible police weren’t predicting how large some events would turn out to be or used to crowds would fan out with so many new locations available.
After a series of high profile shootings the police received more funding to cover the unlimited overtime needed to keep downtown safe without taking officers out of the neighborhoods all while bringing down crime in what’s now called the red zone centered around 7 and Schoenherr.
There’s an article from September I posted about all this if anyone has the interest to dig into this more. However larcenies are up over all in the city and it was led by downtown in the first quarter of the year while the level however as the year went on the ends results are still an 8% increase touching back on the topic of downtown the city is having to readjust to new old problems how it reacts will show if this is just the same old Detroit or not. The 33% drop to the lowest level since 1991 when The Detroit News and ABC coined the phrase carjacking is another positive note.
Other Michigan cities were noted in the article Flint saw a 11.8% drop in homicides and Grand Rapids saw a year over year drop from 22 to 21. Other large cities recording drops in homicides in 2023 include Atlanta (22%), Baltimore (22%), Chicago (12.5%), Houston (20%), Los Angeles (15%), New York (11%) and Philadelphia (24%). Several cities that saw drops in 2023, however, had seen homicides spike to record levels during the previous three years.
The Detroit News I think seemed to have the best article on this subject the Free Press was doing a bit of cheerleading and the numbers got lost in the feel good story. Officer.com from the free header took the News article and ran with it that’s where I’m sourcing my data from.
https://www.officer.com/command-hq/n...des-since-1966
*Sad news to start the year on January 2nd a gunman barricaded himself with his girlfriend and children in a home on Oakman Blvd. The children were released but when police entered they found the couple dead of an apparent murder suicide.
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/incident/2792839
*Correction 2017 & 2018 both saw lowest homicides numerically since 1966.
2017 - 267
2018 - 261
2019 - 272
2020 - 327
2021 - 308
2022 - 309
2023 - 252