Detroit homicides drop 12.5% in 2017 to lowest rate in decades, data show

The number of murder and other criminal homicide cases in Detroit dropped 12.5% in 2017, according to preliminary data released this week by the Detroit Police Department that put the number at 267 for the year.

That’s down from 305 in 2016, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said.

If the preliminary statistic for 2017 holds, it puts the city's homicide rate at 39.7 per 100,000 residents, Detroit's lowest rate in nearly four decades, data analyzed by the Free Press show.

In 1979, the homicide rate for the city was 36.5 per 100,000 people. At that time, there were 1.2 million people in Detroit compared with 672,795 in 2016, which is the latest population data available.

The last time the homicide number was below 267 was in 1966 when 214 homicides occurred, according to decades of data reviewed by the Free Press. That was a rate of 13.6 per 100,000 people.

Craig told the Free Press on Tuesday that there are a number of factors for the decrease. He pointed to the Ceasefire Detroit initiative as one of them. It aims to reduce homicide and violent crime in Detroit. Federal, state, and local law enforcement and the community work in partnership to dismantle violent gangs.

“Clearly, we are moving in the right direction,” Craig said of the reduced homicide number, adding there are still too many homicides in the city.

He also pointed to Project Green Light Detroit, another strategy in the city where participating businesses install high-definition video cameras and the video feed is monitored at the city's Real Time Crime Center.

“I do believe that that’s had an impact on violent crime, particularly in the area of robbery,” Craig said.

In September 2017, data released by the FBI showed Detroit was the most-dangerous big city in America based on violent crime statistics, but Detroit police disputed the 2016 numbers used in the calculations.

Craig said Tuesday that overall violent crime offenses dropped 7% last year, from 12,936 in 2016 to 12,038 in 2017.

Police plan to hold a news conference on Thursday to discuss 2017 crime statistics, including the latest homicide numbers.

Some of the high-profile homicides in 2017 include:

The fatal shooting of James Haller Jr., an O'Reilly Auto Parts manager killed Nov. 1 at the store in the 16800 block of Schaefer. Three people were charged in connection with his death, including two women who face charges of armed robbery and felony murder.

Five people died in an apartment fire officials say was intentionally set in the 10500 block of Whittier on March 8. Wind gusts topped more than 60 m.p.h. that day.

Detroit isn't the only large city to see a decrease in homicides in 2017. Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, saw about a 16% decrease in the number of homicides in 2017, according to the Chicago Police Department. The number dropped to 650, which is a rate of 24 homicides per 100,000 people.

By contrast, St Louis' homicide rate soared. That city had 205 homicides as of Sunday afternoon, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. That is 65.8 homicides per 100,000 residents.

In nearly six decades of Detroit data reviewed by the Free Press, the highest homicide rate in the city was in 1987 when the rate climbed to 63.5 per 100,000 residents. There were 686 homicides that year. The highest total number of homicides in Detroit in a single year during that same time period was in 1974 when the city recorded 714 homicides.

Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com or 313-222-5144.

Contact Kristi Tanner: ktanner@freepress.com or 313-222-8877