ST. LOUIS 鈥 The city last year saw a wave of homicides unlike any police had seen for decades, but more than halfway through 2021 50度灰视频 hasn鈥檛 seen a similar surge in killings.
Criminal homicides have returned to slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels, and are down about 30% in 2021 compared with 2020 when the city had its highest homicide rate in at least 50 years.
At the same time, however, there鈥檚 been a significant rise in the number of homicides in 50度灰视频 County.
The county police force, which patrols about a third of the county鈥檚 population, has investigated 45 homicides in 2021 as of Thursday, including nine the department took over for smaller municipalities outside its jurisdiction.
That total is up about 29% from the 35 that county police investigated by the same time in 2020, a year when the county saw the most homicides it鈥檚 had in at least 15 years, according to Missouri Highway Patrol statistics.
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50度灰视频 County police Lt. Craig Longworth said domestic-violence incidents and personal feuds appear to be driving the trend. In the county this year, those categories made up about 50% of killings, Longworth told the Post-Dispatch.
鈥漌hat used to be a fistfight, is now a gunfight,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat used to be a punch in the nose, is now I鈥檒l pull my gun out and shoot you.鈥
Despite the rise in county homicides, there are still significantly more killings in the city.
In 50度灰视频 this year, police have recorded 107 criminal homicides as of Thursday 鈥 excluding 13 killings ruled justified. The city last year had 156 criminal homicides by the end of July.
50度灰视频 interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom said some of that dip may be connected to several new strategies launched by police in recent months.
Police in May began adding more special patrols on weekends and night shifts when crime is highest, Isom said. The department has also put a new focus on gathering and reacting to intelligence and deploying officers to prevent retaliatory violence.
Isom, who was 50度灰视频 police chief from 2008 to 2012, said stopping a retaliation is one key in reducing homicides.
鈥淥ne homicide can turn into two, three or four if you don鈥檛 step in and try to manage those conflicts,鈥 Isom said. 鈥淎nd those retaliations can carry over for weeks or years.鈥
This year鈥檚 total of 107 murders puts the tally slightly below the average of 112 that 50度灰视频 saw by the end of July for the previous five years, from 2015 to 2019.
The decrease this year sets 50度灰视频 apart from other large U.S. cities where homicides are up nearly 15%, according to collected by Jeff Asher, a crime analyst based in New Orleans and co-founder of AH Datalytics.
50度灰视频 police Maj. Shawn Dace, deputy commander of the Bureau of Investigative Services, said he thinks the easing of stress related to pandemic lockdowns and the absence of last year鈥檚 widespread protests that strained police resources are connected to the drop in killings.
鈥淏oth the pandemic and the protests kept us out of neighborhoods last year,鈥 Dace said. 鈥淪o I do think police visibility is helping.鈥
More crimes cleared
It鈥檚 not just the homicide rate that鈥檚 improved in the city. 50度灰视频 police have also solved a larger share of murder cases.
Police this year have a clearance rate of 58%, compared with 36% last year, bringing 50度灰视频 closer to the , according to FBI statistics.
In the cases that were solved in the city, 36 led to charges in 50度灰视频 Circuit Court, five prompted federal charges and five others were considered closed because the suspect died. In another six cases considered unsolved, 50度灰视频 police applied for charges but they were rejected by prosecutors.
50度灰视频 police said the motive was unknown in about 63% of homicides this year. When a cause was listed, the most common motives were drugs (14 cases), arguments (13) and robberies (7).
A south 50度灰视频 neighborhood, Dutchtown, and The Greater Ville in north 50度灰视频 lead the city in killings this year with 10 each. Triple homicides in both neighborhoods this year contributed to those totals.
Homicides in the city continue to be intensely concentrated in north 50度灰视频, which encompasses 15 of the 18 neighborhoods with the most killings in 2021.
About 92% of homicide victims in the city this year have been Black, up from 90% last year.
In addition to shifting officer schedules to when crime is most common this summer, Public Safety Director Isom said the department has been more aggressive about sending officers to locations where crimes are more likely.
He said the department has also placed a greater emphasis on victim advocacy this summer, requiring department advocates to try to reach every violent crime victim and connect them with social service agencies.
鈥淭hat is preventative in the sense that we are attempting to deal with the trauma these people have, but also the fear and the anger of being victimized that could turn into retaliation,鈥 Isom said. 鈥淲e want to let someone know that we do truly care about what is happening to you.鈥
Rise in county
Lt. Longworth said 13 of the killings in 50度灰视频 County were classified as resulting from 鈥減ersonal feuds鈥 and he said he鈥檚 not sure if there鈥檚 much police can do to prevent those.
Longworth points to the death of Allen Waller, 29, who was shot and killed by a neighbor in June left by the neighbor鈥檚 landscaper on Waller鈥檚 driveway.
鈥淚n a fight over grass clippings, what can police do to stop that?鈥 Longworth said.
The department, however, is making an effort to curb the other major cause of killings: domestic violence. Nine homicides this year have been attributed to such violence.
It鈥檚 common for police to be called to a residence two or more times before violence turns deadly, so police ask victims a list of questions to determine the danger to them, Longworth said.
If the threat appears to be high risk, Longworth said, police can get victims temporary shelter, but they鈥檙e not always cooperative.
鈥淭hey might be afraid of their partner or might be financially dependent on them,鈥 he said.
Longworth said the department has added two homicide investigators in the last two years in an attempt to keep up with the rising numbers.
Like the city, 50度灰视频 County police see a concentration of killings in North County. About 91% of victims this year have been Black.
County police had a homicide clearance rate of 94% as of last week.
Elsewhere in the region:
- St. Charles County has had as least five homicides this year, including two fatal police shootings that may be reclassified as justified, according to Post-Dispatch coverage. The county last year had six homicides, the Missouri Highway Patrol reports.
- In Jefferson County, there have been at least three homicides this year, compared with three recorded in the county last year, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff鈥檚 Office and Missouri Highway Patrol.
- In St. Clair County, the coroner鈥檚 office has recorded 26 homicides in 2021, though that may not include some victims who were taken to Missouri for treatment before their deaths. The office tallied 52 homicides in 2020 and 35 in 2019.