Racial differences in New York City’s murder clearance rates

The Sentencing Project – Race and Justice News

A New York Daily News investigation of New York City’s murder clearance rates ­­­­– the number of arrests made in homicide cases as a proportion of reported homicides over a 12-month period – found significant disparities by race and precinct. The paper’s review of murder investigations in 2013 revealed that 86% of homicides involving a white victim were solved in comparison to 45% of those involving a black victim and 56% involving a Hispanic victim. This is caused partly by precinct-level variation in detective staffing: precincts with larger white and wealthy populations had a higher detective to case ratio. For example, “Manhattan South’s homicide squad has 10 detectives to assist precincts in murder investigations … despite only 10 murders in its jurisdiction in 2013 ­­­­– one case per detective. Brooklyn North’s homicide squad has 17 detectives, despite a whopping 86 homicides in its jurisdiction ­­­­– five cases per detective.” While some experts also attribute lower clearance rates to the reluctance in some communities to cooperate with police investigations, victims’ families point to police shortcomings that suggest a lower level of official concern about African American deaths. The paper’s investigation also revealed an overall decline in murder clearance rates since the 1990s, accompanied by a decline in the number of detectives during the same time period.