Violent incidents in Philly down, but murders are up

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- It could be called one small step forward, and several large steps back when it comes to crime in Philadelphia.

Police say that while the number of violent incident has dropped slightly this year, the number of murders just keeps climbing.

Statistics show that violence and property crimes are happening at virtually the same pace as last year. In fact, they are down one percent.

"We are actually down this year, year-to-date last year at this time," Capt. Sekou Kinebrew. "We're down in property crime one percent, we're down in violent crime."

But the murder rate is up dramatically. At this point last year there had been 134 homicides.

However, in 2017, there have been 163 so far, even though the number of shootings is only up by one percent.

"About the same number of people were shot this year to date as there were last year to date. But more people that were shot unfortunately died as compared to last year," Kinebrew said.

The 24th and 25th police districts are once again where the homicides are far more concentrated than anywhere else in town.

With all that said, and all those numbers to ponder, the question is: how safe do citizens feel in their neighborhoods?

Perception is frequently more important than reality.

"There's a lot of things going on around here. A lot of people getting shot, killed, murdered," said Anthony Gonzalez of East Kensington. "But I don't see too much around here because I be inside the house all the time."

"I just keep my distance from it, I try to keep everybody safe," said Savannah Jett of East Kensington. "I try to drive everywhere I can."

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