Even after murder spike, Seattle still relatively safe

Taken on its own, Wednesday’s violent day in Seattle might
seem like an aberration, a rare occurrence. But this
comes on the heels of a violent week in Seattle that saw
double-digit shootings in the middle of a year that had
already seen 16 murders.

The five victims from Wednesday’s violence brought the
number of homicides in Seattle so far this year to 21,
matching the total for all of last year.

Even with all that, Seattle is still one of the safest big
cities in the nation. According to the latest FBI stats,
which come from 2010, Seattle’s murder rate ranked 78th
out of 94 cities with at least 200,000 people.

The stats bear that out when you compare cities that are
close to Seattle in size. There were 20 murders in Seattle
in 2011. In Boston, there were 63. Baltimore had 196,
Memphis, 147, Washington DC, 108, Nashville, 51. Denver
had 47.

Even Portland had more murders than Seattle last year with
24. Only El Paso was lower than Seattle with 14 murders in
2011.

You’ll have a tough time finding any place in Washington
where murder doesn’t impact the community.

Numbers from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and
Police Chiefs show nine people were killed in Tacoma last
year. Five people were murdered in Everett. There were
four murders in Spokane, three in Federal Way, and two in
Auburn. Bellevue, Kent, and Renton each had one.

One thing that should be kept in mind viewing all these
murder statistics, is that most murders are still
committed by people who know the victims.

Random murders are still the exception, despite the fact
that there have been two random murders in Seattle this
year.