I was just wondering what our current murder rate is in Philly. I don’t have TV, so I can’t watch the news. I tried to do a little research, but most sites haven’t been updated since July. Just wondering.
Dani Fluck
Philadelphia
You don’t need a TV to get the homicide numbers for a city. All you need is a phone. A call to the Philadelphia Police Department’s public affairs office revealed that the city had 310 murders as of Friday, Oct. 6, far outstripping Baltimore’s 215 on the same date. But, Philadelphia’s population is nearly 1.5 million people, more than double Baltimore’s. More troubling is the increase in homicides in Philadelphia last year. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, the city had 377 murders in 2005, a 14 percent rise from the year before, far beyond the national average increase of 3.4 percent. And with 310 murders and three months to go, Philadelphia is poised to meet or exceed last year’s numbers.
