Jacksonville murder rate hits high in August

May was second highest month with 11 murders

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office briefed the media on the latest fatal shooting in the city, police announced that the month of August had quite a few homicides. According analysis by News4Jax, August was the city's deadliest month of 2015 with 13 different homicides.

Many of those cases are still unsolved.

"Unfortunately it was a month where we did have quite a few homicides; they don't appear to be related in any way. It's just been one of those unfortunate months," JSO Lt. Steve Gallaher said. 

News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said there's not much police can do to decrease those numbers, but the community can help.

"If it's happening in someone's home, or people know each other, more police on the streets won't make that much of a difference unless they're right there inside the home," Smith said.

In 2013 Jacksonville had 115 homicides; a year later that number jumped to 121. With 13 homicides in August, there were 68 homicides in the first eight months of 2015.

2015 Jacksonville homicides by month:

January9May11
February 5June9
March6July5
April10August13


"Looking at this report here, I see four of them, maybe five or six of these homicides, were people who may have known the suspect. And some of them were domestic," Smith said. 

These numbers leave people wondering what needs to be done to lower those numbers. Smith said the key is community involvement.

"If people find out about the shooting that is about to occur, or if there is a big fight that's about to happen, then law enforcement can intervene prior to that and that will bring the numbers down," Smith said.

Many of these cases are still unsolved and police have only made a couple of arrests, which a recent report by the New York Times shows is not unique to Jacksonville.

Monday, the Times reported that murder rates across the country are climbing after experiencing a decline in recent years.

At least 35 U.S. cities have reported a spike in murders, violent crimes, or both.

The Justice Department is expected to launch an initiative to deal with the increased murder rates at a conference, this month but criminologists and police departments nationwide are still unsure why the rate is rising.
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