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HOUSTON - Houston had 302 homicides in 2016, one fewer than a recorded 303 homicides in 2015, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced.
“We responded with an aggressive plan that involved an extra $2 million for overtime, the deployment of 175 officers from desk jobs to beat patrols, more park rangers and a new patrol division dedicated to the central business district,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner. “It is always hard to determine the specific reasons murders and other crimes increase. Some say it is something we really have no control over. That may be true, but there are early indications the overtime and increased focus have helped, and for that, I am pleased.”
Officials predicted that homicide rate in 2016 would be much higher than what was recorded in 2015 because of a 5 percent increase in homicides in June and September compared to the year before.
To alleviate the increase in homicides and tension throughout Houston, local hip-hop artists, Texans players, ministers and community leaders took to the streets to try to clean up crime.
According to the mayor, city council members gave part of district budgets to help with police overtime in order to keep people safe.
“There is a still a lot of work to do on decreasing all violent crimes, but getting a handle on murders is a good start,” said Turner. “I commend officers, commanders and support staff at HPD for this effort and hope we can work to maintain our goal of keeping our growing city as safe as we can.
It has about the same murder rate as the two largest cities in the Canadian province of Ontario: Toronto and Ottawa.
This can be said. Two of the three least murderous cities in the USA are basically very liberal. Can't blame the high murder rates on what political party a city is.
Better yet, Tulsa hit 20 murders per 100,000. Tulsa is a conservative city, actually more conservative than so-called conservative San Diego.
Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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Louisville hit 116 with maybe 5 more in suburban cities. That's a huge increase from a usual year that ranges from 45 to 75. Geography of the homicides was the same, bad areas simply had more homicides. Could be linked to a massive increase in heroin overdose deaths, which was reported to be over 300 for the year. Maybe marijuana legalization is hurting drug cartel's finances and forcing them to other drugs?
Does anyone know what Tampa and St Pete ended the year with?
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