Weekend Economists Ring in the New! New Year 2015

[Demeter]

8. Detroit's 2014 homicide count on pace to be lowest since 1967 riots

OF COURSE, THE POPULATION DROPPED TO HALF SINCE THEN...

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2014/12/detroits_2014_homicide_count_o.html

Detroit police statistics indicate the city is on pace to hit a several-decade-low homicide total by the time revelers welcome 2015. As of Dec. 7, the Detroit police had recorded 281 homicides, a pace of about .82 per day, which projects out to about 300 by year's end. Detroit police have not released a final 2014 tally, but George Hunter of the Detroit News reported that the city had recorded 298 homicides as of Dec. 23, a 6 percent decline from 318 last year.

If that pace continued through the final week of 2014, Detroit would record its lowest homicide count since there were 281 in 1967, the year of the race riots, and fewer than the second lowest total since, 308 in 2010, The Detroit News reports.

As of Dec. 7, Detroit police were reporting a 7 percent drop in all violent crime -- including an 8 percent decline in sexual assaults, a 23 percent decline in robberies and a 3 percent drop in aggravated assaults. And the property crime stats as of the last published crime data report on the city website were looking even better, reflecting a 17 percent overall decline...