With 78 murders cataloged so far in 2012, Washington D.C. is poised to reach a new milestone: fewer than 100 in a year for the first time since 1963. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who joined the force in the midst of a violent crime epidemic in the early 1990s says she notices the improvement on a daily basis. The District was besieged by record numbers of homicides during the crack boom in the late 1980s and early 1990s when murder rates rose to almost 600 per year and retaliatory killings were commonplace. Steadily declining since about 1993, the new numbers point to vast improvements on safety in the nation’s capital. Credited for the decline are improved policing methods, better communication, and faster, more efficient access to emergency hospital care. Gentrification is also a factor, with median incomes at a national high, and reorganization of project housing a priority.
Of course there are still crimes, many violent, but overall the decrease in D.C.’s murder rate points to an optimistic future for the city once dubbed the Murder Capital.
