Tampa murders down 26% for first 6 months of '05
While St. Petersburg's murder rate rises 114 percent for the first six months of 2005, Tampa's number drops 26 percent, the FBI reports.
By LEONORA LaPETER
Published December 20, 2005
While the nation's murder rate rose 2 percent in the first half of the year, Tampa Bay communities saw substantially different numbers - from a 26 percent decrease in Tampa to a 114 percent increase in St. Petersburg, the FBI said Monday.
Crime fell nationwide for other significant offenses, including rape, arson and assault, a trend mirrored in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.
Overall, violent crime went down 10 percent in Clearwater, 11 percent in Tampa and nearly 8 percent in St. Petersburg, according to the FBI statistics.
After the murder rate declined 5.7 percent last year, it ticked upward 2.1 percent between January and June. Citing figures collected under its uniform crime reports, the FBI said cities with fewer than 10,000 people saw the largest increases, of 13 percent.
Murder rates rose across the country, but the Midwest saw the highest increases with 4.9 percent. Kansas City, for example, reported 56 murders in the first six months of this year but only 39 during the same time period in 2004.
Tampa had 11 murders from January through June, down from 15 the year before. There were six murders in Clearwater, the exact same number as the year before. And St. Petersburg's total murders in the first six months went from seven last year to 15 this year.
Last year in St. Petersburg, 19 people were murdered. With a little more than two weeks left in the year, St. Petersburg has had 32 homicides - a 60 percent increase.
It is the highest number of murders since 1989, when crack cocaine became more popular and 44 homicides were recorded.
Sgt. Michael Puetz of the St. Petersburg Police Department said the numbers are troubling but are not indicative of any trend because they represent a one-year spike. A little less than half of the murders were the result of domestic disputes or arguments between acquaintances. Another six are unsolved. And four involved robberies.
"There is no interconnection between these homicides," Puetz said. "There's no serial killer. It's not gang violence. None of the victims or the suspects seem to be interrelated. There's no enterprise that's lifted this number up. There's no obvious driving force behind this increase."
Earlier this year, Tampa police noted that FBI statistics indicated crime had dropped 12 percent from 2003 to 2004 - the largest decline in two decades. Tampa police Chief Steve Hogue attributed it to the department's increasing focus on community policing.
On Monday, Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said that the latest FBI stats comparing the first six months of 2005 to 2004 show the trend is continuing. Durkin said the preliminary data show an additional 15 percent decrease in crime overall in Tampa this year.
The FBI did not disclose its raw crime counts for all communities because it considers these six-month reports to be preliminary. But for all cities with more than 100,000 people, it reported 4,080 murders in 2005 and 3,979 in 2004.
--Information from the Associated Press and Times staff writer Kevin Graham was used in this report.