Year End Calculus
Posted on December 30, 2020
Seeing as how we only have hours left in 2020, we wanted to post a quick note to illustrate how the year end totals are accounted for and how best to compare this year to years past.
Past year end totals reflected on this site account for resolved death investigations, found bodies and late passings that can and will occur for many years after the clock strikes midnight on Jan 1st. We apply those incidents towards the time of occurrence, not date of death. Other agencies, such as the CPD, choose to add those resolved death investigations, found bodies and late passings to the year in which the death was recorded.
Despite the tiresome “it was worse in the 90s” refrain, the most common comparison for 2020 is the more recent and relevant 2016. On January 1st 2017, the final totals for 2016 were:
Shot & Killed: 713
Shot & Wounded: 3,665
Total Shot: 4,378
Total Homicides: 795
Over the past few years, those totals have been slowly adjusted to show:
Shot & Killed: 722 (+9)
Shot & Wounded: 3,658 (-7)
Total Shot: 4,380 (+2)
Total Homicides: 808 (+13)
No matter where 2020 ends up on January 1st, it will join 2016 as one of the most violent years of this century with a homicide tally that will slowly increase over the coming years to eventually eclipse 800.