One homicide remains one too many, wherever it occurs in the city.
It is good news that the District overall is losing fewer people to homicide now than in years past. And FBI data show that every police district in the city has seen a drop in homicides over the last several years.
But we still see a strikingly uneven distribution of violent death across our town. There remains stark contrast in homicide numbers between neighborhoods, with the starkest being between the farthest Southwest/Southeast part of town (District 7) and the farthest Northwest section (District 2):
- 27 (twenty-seven) homicides in a recent 7 month period in MPD District 7 (far SE/SW), and
- 0 (zero) homicides in the same period in MPD District 2 (far NW).
A few more statistics are offered as the briefest of background.
Homicides Down, City Divided
The 20-Year Homicide Trend indicates a drop from 361 and 397 such deaths in 1995 and 1996 to 105 and 104* such deaths in 2013 and 2014.
Numbers of homicides vary hugely by police district, with the proportions remaining constant over the years. Here, for comparison, are numbers from January 1 to July 20, 2015 in each of the city’s seven police districts (also, same dates, 2014), along with numbers of violent crimes in this period 2015 (and 2014):
Homicides 2015 (2014) — Violent crimes 2015 (2014)
1st District: 2 (5) —- 377 (349)
2nd District: 0 (0) —- 23 (23)
3rd District: 8 (5) —- 369 (363)
4th District: 7 (6) —- 468 (431)
5th District: 16 (11) —- 546 (461)
6th District: 12 (20) —- 639 (763)
7th District: 27 (18) —- 573 (603)
*The citywide 2013 homicide statistics include the 12 victims of the Washington Navy Yard shooting incident that occurred on September 16, 2013.
