The public safety report the City Council receives every week has some good news.
Despite the fact that the Greensboro Police Department is down 90 fully trained sworn officers, the number of homicides is down according to the report by Assistant City Manager Trey Davis sent to the council on July 28.
According to that report, despite the fact that there were three homicides in the past week, the total number of homicides this year is down nine from the same time period in 2020.
So far this year in Greensboro there have been 23 homicides, and at the same time in 2020 there had been 32 homicides. Greensboro set a record in 2020 with a total of 61 homicides during the year, but 2021 is not on course to break that record. This is doubly good news because in the first months of 2020, it appeared the city was on track to set yet another record for homicides. As of March 19, 2021, the city had already had 11 homicides while during the same time in 2020 there had been six homicides.
But now in July the city is well under the record setting totals for 2020.
The total number of aggravated assaults is up slightly over 2020 with 1,100 aggravated assaults so far in 2021 compared to 1,074 during the same time period in 2020. However, the number of aggravated assaults with a firearm is down. So far in 2021 there have been 620 aggravated assaults with a firearm while during the same time period in 2020 there were 695.
Both the number of robberies and robberies with a firearm are also down this year. In 2021 there have been 293 robberies and 129 of those were robberies with a firearm. During the same time period in 2020 there were 344 robberies and 176 of those were with a firearm.
In 2020, because much of the year was spent with businesses closed, curfews and a stay-at-home order in response to COVID-19, traffic fatalities were down. As expected with the economy opening back up traffic fatalities have increased. So far this year there have been 29 traffic fatalities in Greensboro and during the same time period in 2020 there were 17.
Drug overdose deaths are also up with 69 so far this year compared to 57 during the same period in 2020.
John leads this story off with “despite the fact” and doesn’t consider the possibility that it could be “because of the fact”.
It is only “down” compared to last year, which was a record breaking year for homicides in GSO. Compared to every other year in history, we are still on track for all time highs. I think we tend to average about 30 homicides a year, except for last year’s 62 and the previous year which was in the 40s (and also record breaking at the time). We are already at 23 for this year with 5 months still to go. So, no homicides aren’t really down compared to historical trends. They are only down compared to the anomalies of the last two years.
1781, 79 people were killed in a single day in Guilford County.
I have to imagine there was at least one year when this was a slave state that White slaveowners murdered more than 60 slaves, but alas, that data is hard to dig up.
Let’s not makeup stuff, “DON”
There would not have been a lot of slaves in Guilford County, and the ones that were here would have been valuable property, so the slave owner, whether white or black, would have had no financial incentive to kill his slaves. Yes,there were black slave owners. And yes, there were slaves who were not black. Sad to say, there is still slavery in the world today.
If you are referring to the Revolutionary War, then yes people were killed at that rate. But a soldier killed in battle is not a homicide for crime tracking purposes. Keep spinning.
Good news for everyone except the police dept. There will be less urgency to expand the force. I hope I am wrong.
Maybe running out of victims.
This just shows that the many shooters weren’t as accurate with their aim as last year’s!
The drug overdoses are completely preventable. Don’t do drugs and you won’t die from an overdose. Yes, it’s that simple.