The website opendataphilly.org makes available all sorts of useful information about Philadelphia government and services. One file in particular includes details of over 2.3 million crimes reported in the city since 2006. A look at the number of criminal homicides by year shows an interesting trend:

The good news: the homicide rate dropped significantly between 2006 and 20016. In particular, 2013 saw a major drop in killings, coinciding with a reorganization of the police department and a more aggressive outreach to the “usual suspects”.

The bad news: since 2013, the rate has been creeping back up, and based on homicides year to date, the count for 2017 could be near the total for 2012.

To give you an idea where all of these homicides are taking place, the interactive map below shows the locations of homicides in Philadelphia last year (2016). Circles with numbers represent clusters of homicides; if you click on a cluster it will zoom in and decompose into a new set of circles, each representing a smaller number of homicides. A single homicide is represented by a blue dot.

Most homicides occured in north Philly (north of Spring Garden), followed by west Philly (west of the Schuylkill) and then south Philly (below South Street). The center of the city (bordered by Spring Garden and South streets between the two rivers) was the scene of only a handful of homicides in 2016.