Here’s Where Homicides Go Unsolved In Birmingham

More than half of the homicides in America’s 50 largest cities went unsolved over the past 10 years, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. The Post’s analysis of 52,000 criminal homicides identified zones within cities where there were more than eight homicides but the arrest rate was less than 30 percent.

In Birmingham, 43 percent of the homicides tracked over the past decade went unsolved, according to the analysis.

According to the Post’s data, there were 800 homicides in Birmingham between 2007 and 2017. Over that time period, the number of homicides stayed flat while the arrest rate decreased. There were 64 homicides cleared without an arrest.

The Post found that Birmingham has six zones with a high concentration of homicides and high arrest rates, and no zones with a high concentration of homicides and low arrest rates. See map compiled by the Post here.

The majority of homicide victims in Birmingham were black, with 706 victims. The number of white victims totaled 65 and the number of Hispanic victims was 21. The arrest rates were almost the same (about 60 percent) in cases where the victims were black or white, but there was a lower percentage (about 45 percent) for cases where the victims were Hispanic, according to the Post’s findings.

Nationwide, the Post found that in 44 of the 47 cities where a victim’s race was reliably recorded, a white victim’s homicide resulted in an arrest more often than a minority victim’s homicide.

Other findings from the Post’s analysis include:

• 34 of the 50 cities analyzed have a lower homicide arrest rate now compared to a decade ago
• Killings have increased in 17 cities over the past decade and police now make fewer arrests in these cities
• An arrest was made in 63 percent of homicides of white victims compared with 48 percent of Latino victims and 46 percent of black victims
• Almost all the low-arrest zones are home primarily to low-income black residents

Read the full analysis from The Post here.