Jerry Pryakhin, 14, feels more secure these days walking around in Boston, where no one under 18 has been killed in 11/2 years.
"I feel safer knowing someone won't try to murder me," Pryakhin said Monday.Like many other major cities, Boston was less dangerous in one big way in 1996: The number of homicides hit a 30-year low. The homicide rate also fell in Salt Lake City, New York, Dallas, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and elsewhere. Experts credited major police forces for getting tougher on violent crime.
"Most of the major cities reached a point where they said, `We have to do something,' " said Dennis Kenney, research director at the Police Executive Research Forum.
Despite increased police presence, some cities - including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Miami and Washington - reported higher numbers of homicides in 1996.
Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans said his city's force has cracked down on gun trafficking and high-risk probationers, while cooperating with state and federal law enforcement, community groups and clergy.
"We're policing far differently than we did several years ago," Evans said. "In the '70s and '80s, we said, `We'll solve the problems. We're the professionals.' We've opened the process up and made people feel that they're part of the solution."
Boston had 58 murders in 1996, through Monday. That's fewer homicides than during any 12-month period since 1966.
The department has added 300 officers over the past two years, but Kenney said their presence doesn't necessarily discourage potential killers.
"If I'm disturbed at someone enough to kill them, I probably won't be deterred by the knowledge that there are more policemen on the street," he said.
New York is celebrating a decline of more than 50 percent since 1990, from 2,245 slayings to fewer than 1,000 in 1996 - the lowest number since 1968. That coincides with the addition of 7,000 police officers, for a total of 38,300, or one for every 191 residents.
Phoenix Police Detective Mike McCullough believes a 10 percent increase in his force helped keep the number of homicides below 200, compared with 244 in 1995.
Salt Lake City experienced 23 homicides in 1996, down from 27 in 1995.
In Los Angeles, there were 688 homicides reported through Dec. 14, compared with 829 for the same period last year, an 11.1 percent drop.
A decline in gang violence and even fallout from the O.J. Simpsoncase may have played a role, police Lt. Anthony Alba said.
"At any given time there are certain areas where we do have gang truces (and) with the publicity on spousal abuse, we cut down on spousal homicides," he said.
The statistics are preliminary and the final numbers, including those from smaller cities and towns, won't be in for several months. And some cities may have benefited from population changes.
Kenney noted a decline in the number of men in their late teens and early 20s.
"Typically, violent crime tends to be a young man's enterprise and there's fewer of them now," he said.
Dallas, with one of the highest per-capita crime rates, halved its murder rate since 1991. In 1996, there were 219 killings as of Monday, down from 276 in 1995.
"I can't think of anything that truly has caused this dramatic reduction," Dallas Police Sgt. Jim Chandler said.
"It's just one of those statistics with no explanation."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Cities and body counts
Most major cities showed declines in the number of homicides in 1996:
- Atlanta: 156 murders through October, compared with 145 for the same 10-month period in 1995.
- Boston: 58 murders in 1996 as of Monday, a 30-year low and 30 percent below the number reported in 1995.
- Chicago: 785 murders as of Monday, down from 826 in 1995.
- Dallas: 219 killings as of Monday, down from 276 in 1995.
- Denver: 63 murders through November, compared with 74 through November 1995.
- Las Vegas: 167 homicides in 1996 as of Monday, a record high and up from 134 in 1995.
- Los Angeles: 688 homicides through Dec. 14, down from 829 for the same period last year.
- Miami: 120 murders in 1996, up from 102 in 1995.
- Milwaukee: 138 homicides through Monday, compared with 142 in 1995.
- Newark, N.J.: 101 murders as of Monday, compared with 103 in 1995.
- New Orleans: 346 murders in 1996, down from 362 in 1995.
- New York: 938 murders as of Tuesday, down from 1,182 in 1995.
- Phoenix: Fewer than 200 murders in 1996, down from 244 in 1995.
- Philadelphia: 408 homicides in 1996, down slightly from in 1995.
- Salt Lake City: 23 murders in 1996, down from 27 in 1995.
- Seattle: 36 murders in 1996, down from 48 in 1995.
- Washington: 396 murders in 1996 as of Friday, up from 360 in 1995.
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A recap for Utah
A complete recap of all homicides in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County and the rest of Utah will appear in Thursday's Deseret News.