City On Track For New Homicide Record

Wednesday, September 26th 2007, 6:16 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Oklahoma City may set a new 21st century homicide record this year if killings continue at their present pace, statistics show. Homicide totals were up 41% at the end of July from the previous year-to-date total, putting the city on track to reach 67 homicides by the end of December, officials said.

So far this year, the city has logged 50 homicides, including accidental killings and police shootings, police Capt. Steve McCool said Tuesday. There were 57 homicides last year, which was the previous 21st century high.

``You can look at them and see different reasons: domestic-related, gang-related,'' McCool said. ``But nothing that spikes. One year, we had a large number of drive-bys, but we're down from that this year. ... We can't pinpoint any one reason why homicides are up.''

The police figure is higher than data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, which showed Oklahoma City's 2006 homicide total as 55.

Small differences are not uncommon between local and national data, due in large part to differing systems of categorization. Statistics are sent from municipalities to state law enforcement agencies before arriving at the FBI.

As for 2006, about 4,300 violent crimes were reported in Oklahoma City, including 327 forcible rapes; 1,179 robberies and 2,740 assaults. All were down from 2005 totals.

In 2006, Tulsa reported 4,816 violent crimes, including 53 homicides; 289 rapes; 997 robberies and 3,477 assaults. Those figures also declined from 2005 totals.

In the state's third-largest city, officials reported 211 violent crimes in Norman, including five homicides, 38 rapes and 118 assaults. Homicide and rape figures increased, according to reports.

Statewide, there were 17,803 violent crimes reported and 129,200 property crimes, both down from 2005 numbers. Homicides rose 10.7 percent and larcenies fell 13.4 percent, numbers showed.