D.C. homicide rate is up, but violent crime continues to decrease
Editorial Board, Washington Post, Jan. 1, 2014

THE DISTRICT of Columbia ended 2013 with 104 homicides — a number, swelled by the grim toll of the 12 people wantonly gunned down at the Washington Navy Yard by a lone shooter, that is up from 2012’s landmark low of 88 homicides. Thankfully, though, it is still a far cry from the horrendous old days when 12 people killed in a weekend on city streets was seen as so much business as usual.

Like much of the nation, the District is seeing a continuation of long-term reductions in violent crime. No doubt there are many factors, both economic and social, at play. Clearly, though, the District is on the right track with anti-crime efforts, as is neighboring Prince George’s County. In the District, that has meant smart use of data and new technologies to identify crime patterns and deploy personnel. Both street shootings and gang violence have seen dramatic reductions as a result [....]

Baltimore’s jump in homicides in 2013 defies national trends
If New York had Baltimore's murder rate, 3,160 persons would have been killed last year, instead of the 333 recorded by police
By Mark Reutter, Baltimore Brew, Jan. 2, 2014

2013 was not kind to Anthony W. Batts, a West Coast transplant who became the city’s police commissioner 15 months ago.

Batts got his first taste of murder Baltimore-style last June when 28 shootings and 10 homicides took place over five days.

He called a press conference and announced that he and his department were ready for any bloodshed.

“I am connected to this organization. I am driving directions almost every single hour,” he told reporters, blaming the shooting spree on gangs battling over turf, random confrontations and the Black Guerrilla Family.

The tough talk did not quell the killings, especially in the Western Police District.

Nor did the hoopla surrounding a $286,000 strategic policing plan requested by Batts and skippered by his longtime friend, ex-LAPD police chief William J. Bratton.

[....] Baltimore continued its upward arc of street shootings through the summer and autumn, bucking the trend of plummeting homicides in other cities.

While the final tallies from the FBI won’t be official for many months, a review of publicly-available police stats by The Brew show that Baltimore’s 7.3% rise in homicides in 2013 – from 219 to 235 – is matched only by spikes in Newark, Washington and Indianapolis.

Otherwise, nearly all large U.S. cities – including Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland and Oakland – recorded fewer murders in 2013.

Some hard numbers: [.....]

On Portland, Detroit, L.A. and Oakland:

Portland crime rate drops in 2013, police say
By KATU.com Staff, Jan 2, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland crime was down to its lowest rate in more than 40 years during 2013, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Official crime numbers have not been released, but police said there were 14 homicides last year, a 46 percent decrease from 2012 (24 homicides).  Police also said aggravated assaults were down eight percent and robberies were down seven percent.

Rape cases, however, increased by eight percent in 2013.

The overall crime rate is expected to be down five percent when official numbers are released. It would be the lowest rate since 1967, according to police [....]

Detroit Crime, Including Homicides, Drops in 2013
By Corey Williams in Detroit, Associated Press, Jan. 2, 2014

Violent crime is down in Detroit, police have improved their response time to 911 calls and officers are solving a greater percentage of homicides, according to the city's police chief.

The news Thursday comes just six months into James Craig's tenure. Craig has looked for ways to improve a department that before he was hired had a response time to 911 calls that approached an hour and that solved about four of every 10 homicides.

The time it takes officers to get to priority calls has been cut to about eight minutes. Criminal homicides in the city fell by 53 between 2012 and last year. And investigators now close half the murder cases.

Craig, a former chief of police in Cincinnati and Portland, Maine, has made sweeping changes to the way crime is tackled in Detroit. He discarded a failed "virtual precinct" concept that saw some neighborhood police stations close at night, put more emphasis on crime statistics to identify trouble spots, moved detectives back into precincts and brought in a new executive command team [....]

LA Crime Rate Down For 11th Straight Year
By Kelly Goff, Los Angeles Daily News, Jan. 1, 2014

Crime is down throughout Los Angeles for the 11th straight year, and the numbers show a steep decline in what have long been some of the toughest areas in the San Fernando Valley.

Homicides citywide are at the lowest level since the 1966 -- when the city had a fraction of its current population -- and in some areas of the valley, the decline is as much as 47 percent compared with the same period in 2012.

Police officials say the improvement is due to a combination of factors: an increase in crime-related data that helps to pinpoint when and where crime is likely to occur, an increase in patrols and outreach efforts and the fruition of years of gang suppression efforts, including seven gang injunctions throughout the area.

"I would attribute it to the overall effort. Not one strategy, but all of the strategies working together," said Deputy Chief Jorge Villegas, who oversees the eight police stations within the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Bureau. "Every single day we look at the data from the last 24 hours, 36 hours, last seven days, so we are quickly deploying our resources where they are needed. We're being agile. You combine that with community outreach, Facebook, Twitter, all of the other ways we're getting people involved and it is helping."

Community outreach includes a three-year long pilot program at Mission division, called Operation Ceasefire [....]

Oakland sees crime rate drop in 2013
By Jean Quan and Sean Whent, SF Gate, Jan. 2, 2014

Throughout 2013, Oakland's strategies to create jobs and reduce violence built momentum, and we saw our second-largest year-to-year drop in homicides in 40 years. Homicides came down 28 percent and home burglaries dropped 18 percent.

Nearly every category of crime is on the decline. Although robberies increased in the first months of the year, and will be a continuing priority in 2014, the rate peaked in the summer and has been declining ever since.

Last year, Oakland's economy took several big steps forward, with businesses and development expanding and unemployment declining. As a result, city revenues grew, and we worked with the City Council to invest that growth in a public safety.

We graduated our first police academies in more than four years. We're holding more frequent, more diverse, larger academies, with ongoing recruitment for Oakland-grown officers. We trained and hired 74 new officers in 2013 and budgeted to increase the force to 700, building toward our goal of 900.

Meanwhile, we strengthened Ceasefire, our primary violence-reduction strategy [....]