This archive report was first published on 27 September 2021.
Published on September 27, 2021, a year marked by a record number of homicides in various medium-sized cities, major cities in the United States saw a decline in murder rates compared to their worst years.
For instance, New York City experienced 500 murders in 2020, a significant decrease from the 2,200 recorded in 1990. Similarly, Chicago had 771 murders in 2020, down from 939 in 1992, one of the city's most violent years.
Los Angeles, however, saw a slight increase in murders, with 351 in 2020 compared to 258 in 2019. The city's record remains 1,010 murders in 1980.
Experts attribute the decline in murder rates in major cities to various factors, including the protests that erupted after the killing of George Floyd. Some argue that the police, under intense scrutiny and demoralized, pulled back from some aspects of crime prevention.
Others suggest that the public's diminished respect for the police prompted more people to try to take the law into their own hands. According to Mr. Winograd, the distrust of police, low morale among police, and the police being less proactive due to fear of being backed up by their superiors were contributing factors.
Law enforcement officers, like Chief Medina, also cited the revolving jailhouse door created by bail reform as a factor driving up violence. However, critics noted that violent crime also increased in places where those changes have not occurred.
Other factors, such as the combination of drugs, money, and guns, have long provided a fuse for violent deaths among young men. As Liz Thomson, a former supervisor of homicide investigations for the Albuquerque Police Department, noted, 'A lot of it really does go back to people stressed by poverty and mental health issues and by drug addiction, and resolving a lot of these disputes by firearms.'
