Newsweek Labels Wilmington “Murder Town USA”

Newsweek takes a close look at Wilmington and labels the city “Murder Town USA”:

This year, there have been 27 homicides in Wilmington, tying its record 27 murders in 2010, and 135 people have been shot. Twenty-two of them died. With a population of just over 71,000, Wilmington had a violent-crime rate of 1,625 per 100,000 people last year, according to the FBI’s 2013 Uniform Crime Report (that crime rate measures murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault). The national average was 368 per 100,000 people. Wilmington ranks third for violence among 450 cities of comparable size, behind the Michigan towns of Saginaw and Flint, according to a Wilmington News Journal report. For a city mired in violence, the most stunning fact of all may be that Wilmington just got its first homicide unit.

Philly Mag contributor Larry Mendte pleaded for that homicide unit back in July, you’ll recall. And just last month Mendte said Wilmington’s new Police Chief Bobby Cummngs has a chance to turn the situation around if he adopts data-driven policing techniques.