The FBI reported the District was safer in 2009. Crime has dropped 7.2 percent from 2008 to 2009 in D.C., according to a preliminary crime report.
The Examiner reports that the number of homicides in the District fell from 186 to 143, and the number of rapes dropped from 186 to 150.
These numbers matched the drops in crime in Maryland and Virginia.
But the Virginia state police reported that the commonwealth’s violent crime dropped 9.7 percent in 2009 from 2008. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said crime in his state was down to levels not seen since 1975, a trend led in large part by Prince George’s County where the number of murders dropped to the lowest in decades.
The decrease in crime is felt across the country for the third consecutive year, dropping by 5.5 percent in 2009. Law enforcement officials attribute the crime drop wave to new technology and using micro strategies to police neighborhoods.
