As 2024 comes to a close, violent crime in the City of Birmingham is down 7.5 percent, according to Birmingham Police statistics. However, murders are up nearly 10 percent. This comes as no surprise, given two mass shootings in the city.
BPD reported 12 additional homicides in 2024 compared to the previous year. At the time of publication, police investigated 137 murders in 2024 compared to 125 in 2023.
According to BPD, homicides in the West Precinct were down 12 percent, tied for the same number in the North Precinct and were up in both the South and East Precincts year over year. The East Precinct investigated the highest number of murders.
Aside from murders which were up 9.6 percent, all other categories of violent crime are down. The number of reported rape cases sharply dropped 41 percent with 26 cases of rape reported in 2024 compared to 44 in 2023.
Property crimes are also down across the board with the exception of burglary. Overall, nonviolent crime – which includes burglary, car theft and property theft – is down 4 percent. The number of car thefts showed the largest decrease, down 12.7 percent. Burglaries were up 2.6 percent.
The City of Birmingham’s crime statistics are in line with the national average. According to preliminary FBI Uniform Crime data for 2024, violent crime is down 10 percent nationally.
Earlier this month, AL.com reported that Birmingham broke a nearly century-old record of 148 homicides, as police responded to the 149th homicide of 2024, finding a man shot to death in the front yard of a home in Titusville.
The previous record was set in 1933, according to the website.
