Bucking a national decline in killings, the number of homicides in Seattle grew 7% in the first half of 2023, according to a report released Thursday by the Council on Criminal Justice.
On average, the number of homicides reported across 30 cities have dropped by 9.4% this year, compared with the first half of 2022. Seattle was one of 10 cities to report an increase, with a percent change greater than New York (4.9%).
Despite the drop, homicide levels remain 24% higher than in the first half of 2019 among the cities analyzed by the council, a nonpartisan criminal justice think tank.
In May, King County officials reported that homicides remained on pace with the past three years, which each saw more than 100 people die by violence. They also noted that violent crime rates generally had fallen.
"We are encouraged that the numbers are starting to go in the right direction, but I think we can all acknowledge that we still have important work to do, collaborating with law enforcement and community, to make sure these numbers keep going in the right direction," King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion said then.
In 2020, pandemic disruptions, as well as the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and ensuing social unrest, contributed to a historic rise in homicides, the report's authors said.
Examining violent crime generally, the study's authors found that the number of violent incidents had fallen considerably in the cities they've been tracking.
"The downward trends in violent crime we're seeing as the pandemic recedes should not dim the intensity of our commitment to reduce violence across the country," said Council on Criminal Justice Research Specialist Ernesto Lopez, the study's co-author. "Although the levels of homicide and other violent crime are well below historical peaks, they remain intolerably high, especially in poorer communities of color."
Between 2019 and 2020, the number of homicides had risen an average 37% in the study cities. In Seattle they rose 63% — more than Chicago (55%) or New York (43%). Since then, the number of killings reported across cities has slowed down and declined.
In the first six months of 2023, homicides in Seattle are still on the rise, albeit not as much as the 14% increase the city recorded in 2022. That year, the council observed an overall drop of 4% among the studied cities
Car thefts rising in Seattle, though less rapidly than in 2022
Like other cities examined in the report, motor vehicle thefts in Seattle continued to grow in the first half of 2023. However, that increase, at 17%, was half the average increase of 33.5% recorded across the studied cities.
Seattle's increase is lower than Chicago's (130%) or Austin's (29%). Boston and Los Angeles recorded actual declines in the number of car thefts, dropping 3% and 10% respectively.
The increase in motor vehicle thefts during the pandemic was both large and wide, the council observed. Between 2019 and the end of 2022, the studied cities saw a 59% rise in such thefts. In Seattle they grew 73%.
Now from January to June 2023, the number of vehicle thefts across the studied cities has more than doubled compared with the first half of 2019.
