Homicides up 14.6% over year ago
Property crimes decline while violent incidents rise
Police officers respond to a homicide in North Memphis Feb. 3, 2021. Violent crime for January through June increased in Memphis 13% compared to 2020, according to the Public Safety Institute and the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission. (The Daily Memphian file)
Gun-related crimes, ranging from homicides to aggravated assaults, continued to rise at an “alarming rate” during the first six months of the year while property crimes continued to decrease in Memphis and Shelby County, new statistics show.
According to a quarterly report from the Public Safety Institute and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, violent crime for January through June increased in Memphis 13% compared to 2020. Aggravated assaults involving guns drove the increase along with homicides, which are up 14.6% in 2021 compared to the same time period last year.
Memphis recorded a record 332 homicides in 2020.
Overall crime, which includes 54 categories tracked by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, was down 3% compared to the same time last year.
“While overall crime is going down, gun violence continues to be of urgent concern,” said Bill Gibbons, president of the Crime Commission and executive director of the University of Memphis’ Public Safety Institute.
Gibbons, in his emailed statement, pointed to Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich’s work on focused deterrence and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s Group Violence Intervention, or GVIP, plan as two ways officials are working to curb violent crime in the city and county.
Memphis announced recently that it plans to use some of the $160 million in pandemic relief funds the city received from the federal government to hire more officers and to pay officers overtime, as well as to fund recruiting efforts and to implement community intervention programs to fight the rise of violence.
Violent incidents involving guns in Memphis increased to 71.7% of all violent crimes for the first half of this year compared to 63.6% last year, according to the report.
The Crime Commission included in its quarterly report data on calls to police for shots fired and people hit by gunfire.
In April, MPD announced it had installed the ShotSpotter surveillance system in one section of the city, Orange Mound, to detect when gunshots are fired and from what direction. The Daily Memphian requested data on the ShotSpotter program but MPD had not provided the information as of July 29.
Through June, there were 10,354 calls to police for shots fired compared to 10,176 last year. Of the 10,354 calls, 1,253 people were shot compared to 1,114 last year.
“It’s going to take all of us, though, working together, including parents, teachers, faith community leaders, neighborhood watch leaders and responsible adults willing to mentor our youth,” Gibbons said about reducing violent crime.
Topics
violent crime Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission Bill Gibbons Memphis Police Department crime HomicidesYolanda Jones
Yolanda Jones covers criminal justice issues and general assignment news for The Daily Memphian. She previously was a reporter at The Commercial Appeal.
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