DETROIT (AP) — Detroit's police chief says the number of homicides in the city declined in 2018 for the second consecutive year.
The Detroit News reports Chief James Craig on Tuesday said there were 261 criminal homicides in 2018, down from 267 in 2017. The total from 2017 had marked the fewest number of homicides since 1966, when there were 214. Detroit's 2018 numbers are subject to review.
Craig says a reduction in gang violence is a factor, but he notes: "we still have work to do."
Detroit's population makes the declines look less impressive. Factoring in Detroit's current population of around 673,000, the newspaper says the 2018 homicide rate was around 39 per 100,000 residents. The rate in 1966, when Detroit had around 1.5 million people, was 14 per 100,000 residents.
