Report: Data shows that number of solved murders across the nation is at its lowest in the last 50 yearsPosted by: Jenna Curren|June 30, 2022
UNITED STATES – According to a report from CBS News, a review of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) statistics shows that the murder “clearance rate” across the nation has fallen to its lowest point in nearly 50 years.
Did the UCR keep track of this in modern times? Seems very relevant to discussion of decreasing clearance rates. Sure, the clearance rate for murder was 92% in 1960… But only 60% of people charged with murder in 1960 were convicted! pic.twitter.com/sseqeQcYrb— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) June 24, 2022
A “clearance rate” is the number of cases each year that are solved by police departments, which essentially means officers either make an arrest or close the case for other reasons.Thomas Hargrove, who runs the Murder Accountability Project, which tracks unsolved murders nationwide, said in a statement:
“It’s a 50-50 coin flip. It’s never been this bad. During the last seven months of 2020, most murders went unsolved. That’s never happened before in America.”According to a CBS News’ analysis, police are far less likely to solve a murder when the victim is black or Hispanic.
The data also reportedly show that in 2020, the murders of White victims were about 30 percent more likely t0 be solved than in cases of Hispanic victims, and about 50 percent more than when the victims were Black.
Of course the media was quick to turn this into a racial debatewhile ignoring the countless other factors involved, such as sheer number of black or Hispanic victims, violent crime in the inner cities that have been police-defunded, and a lack of willingness for victims to come forward.
Jackson, Mississippi, has suffered from one of the nation’s highest murder rates and in a city of about 160,000 people, the police department responded to 153 murders in the last year, but has only eight homicide detectives to work the caseload. Police Chief James Davis said that his department needs more of everything to keep up with the violence. He added:
“The whole system is backlogged. I could use more police officers. I could use more homicide detectives, but if the state is backed up, the court is backed up. We will still have the same problem by developing these cases that we’re already doing.” FBI guidelines suggest homicide detectives should be covering no more than five cases at a time.
Police also stated that the breakdown in trust between their officers and the communities they serve, which was exemplified when anti-police advocates pushed the “defund the police” movement in several large cities across the nation, has made it harder for police to receive tips or get help from witnesses.
Danielle Outlaw, the commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, said that there is a “history of systemic inequities that contribute to the mistrust” in many communities most affected by crime.
When referring to past episodes of police misconduct, Outlaw added:“We’ve gotten in our own way. It has to be a two-way street, as it is with any relationship.” In 2020, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reported a clearance rate of about 55 percent, which is slightly better than the national average. The LAPD recorded 351 homicides and 202, which was 36 percent more than 2021.
Chief Michael Moore pointed to that spike, along with the pandemic, as explanations for the city’s clearance rate. He also cited a lack of community trust in police that prevents potential witnesses from coming forward. Moore added:
“The solving of a crime, a homicide particularly, is dependent on community trusting police.” There are some cities, however, that are reporting high murder clearance rates, like the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
WBTV reported that data obtained from CMPD shows thatthe agency had a 83 percent homicide clearance rate in 2019, a 74 percent rate in 2020, and a 77 percent clearance rate in 2021. Detective Rick Smith, the CMPD’s Crime Stoppers coordinator explained why the department’s clearance rates are higher than the national and state clearance rates. He said: “First and foremost it’s the community, their willingness to step forward and provide us information to help us solve those crimes and we ask that they continue to support us.”
Smith also spoke about the challenges that some investigators may encounter when trying to crack a case. He explained:
“It we don’t have any cooperation from the community and we have little information to go on. That makes it kind of difficult to solve a crime.”
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/murder-clearance-rate-across-the-nation-is-at-its-lowest-in-the-last-50-years/