After a years-long uptick in homicides, Cincinnati saw its first drop in homicides within the city in 2022, according to a report compiled by the Cincinnati Police Department.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge presented the report to city council Tuesday during a meeting of the public safety and governance committee.
"One is too many, but I think we're trending in the right direction to get a handle on it," said council member Scotty Johnson.
According to CPD's data, there were a total of 78 homicides in 2022 — down from the 94 homicides committed in both 2020 and 2021, but not below 2019's homicide amount of 73.
"Every one of these is tragic, every one of these is tragic," Cincinnati Police Department Assistant Police Chief, Michael John said.
The year didn't start off with any indication the rise in homicides were slowing in 2022; In January, before his retirement as Cincinnati's police chief, Eliot Isaac said the first month of 2022 was the deadliest January in recent history.
As the summer months approached, which typically produce the highest number of homicides each year, Cincinnati city council members increased the budget for police overtime to help combat another summertime spike in violence.
According to CPD's data, homicides did uptick over the summer months, but that peak was bookended by spikes in homicides in January and from October through the start of December.
"It's a lot of work by our police department to really continue to move the needle making sure that the city is safe so thank you to them," council members Mark Jeffreys said.
Of the homicides committed in 2022, 64 of them involved a gun — by contrast, CPD's data says there were 61 fatal shootings in the city in 2022, though it's unclear why there is a disparity between these numbers.
According to CPD's data, their closure rate for homicide cases fell slightly from 74% in 2021 to 72% in 2022; a case is considered closed if an arrest is made, the alleged offender dies, prosecution in the case is declined or the suspect is awaiting a grand jury presentation, the report says. By comparison, CPD says the national homicide clearance rate is 50%, citing an article from The Atlantic published in July 2022.
Most of the homicides committed in Cincinnati in 2022 were a result of domestic or intimate partner violence, data shows. In 2022, 28 of the 78 total homicides were a result of domestic violence, according to the report. The next highest motive category listed, "sudden dispute," made up 20 incidences, according to CPD.
"That inability to resolve a conflict seems to be, if it's not growing, it's certainly sustained," John said.
He said the department sees an opportunity in this area to intervene to prevent more homicides under these circumstances in the future.
"Some places across the country, they're bringing people in to involve clergy to speak to groups, connecting, making connections within school systems. We try to do that," he said.
The city saw a slight downtrend in shootings from 2021 to 2022 as well, but it is very slight: There were 405 shootings in 2021 and 401 in 2022. CPD defines a shooting as an incident in which a gun was fired and a person was shot.
Violent crime, which CPD defines as crimes of aggravated assault, rape and robbery, has steadily declined year over year since 2017, according to CPD's report. However, although violent crime overall decreased, aggravated assaults rose 1.1% from 2021 and rapes rose 26.3% from 2021.
Cincinnati police district 4, which contains Mt. Auburn, Corryville, Walnut Hills, Avondale, Paddock Hills, Bond Hill, Roselawn, Carthage and Hartwell, had the most reported violent crime in 2022, CPD's data shows.
The city saw one fewer fatal crash in 2022 than the previous year, though fatal crashes have overall seen an uptick since 2019, data shows. In 2021, 1.8% of crashes involved a pedestrian; in 2022, 1.7% were pedestrian-involved.
Pedestrian-involved crashes have overall decreased year-over-year since 2019, with a 14.3% decrease over those three years.
Most pedestrian-involved crashes in 2022 happened in either district 4 or district 3, which is home to East, West and Lower Price Hill, Westwood, Millvale, North and South Fairmount, Riverside, Saylor Park, Sedamsville and Cumminsville.
You can look at CPD's full report in city council's meeting agenda here:
CPD Homicide Data by WCPO 9 News on Scribd
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