DETROIT — 2012 is over and the city of Detroit has recorded 386 homicides within a one year span, up 42 killings from 2011’s data. The 2012 figures get even worse when 25 justifiable murders are added which includes three police shootings, according to the Detroit Free Press. 

Forty years ago, the city of Detroit was known as the murder capital, but residents are more likely to get killed today than they were back then according to the data. The 2012 crime statistics were announced Thursday morning during a press conference led by Police Chief Chester Logan and Mayor Dave Bing.

Mayor Dave Bing, center, with Interim Police Chief Chester Logan, left, and Inspector Dwane Blackmon, discuss crime rates Thursday. PHOTO: The Detroit News

“We’ve just lost respect for each other, we’ve lost respect for life,” Bing said. “And in some kind of way, all of us have to get back involved in this to give back to this next generation,” Mayor Bing said on Detroit’s conditions. 

Homicides increased over 10 percent in 2012, pushing the murder rate to 53 per 10,000 residents. Those figures make Detroit the highest amongst the nation’s top 20 most populated cities. Only New Orleans had comparable figures for cities with more than 200,000 residents. 

2012 will mark Detroit’s highest murder rate since the crack cocaine epidemic of the late 1980’s, and it’s even worse than 1974, when the city had recorded 714 murders. At the time the city’s population was much greater, with only 51 murders taking place for every 100,000 residents. 

By contrast, New York City had 414 murders in 2012. In comparison, If Detroit had NYC’s population with the same murder rate, the murders would stand at 4,400. 

There was some good news for the city however. Aggravated assaults dropped by 1.86 percent, burglaries dropped by 12.85 percent, larcenies were down by .12 percent and rape dropped by 6.82 percent. But the good news ends there as unauthorized driving away of automobiles rose by 6.44 percent and robberies increased by 1.92 percent.