Residents in Memphis, Tennessee, have expressed frustration over a spike in crime after the city recorded its worst death toll on record, local news outlets reported.
WREG News: 397 homicides in Memphis in 2023, worst year since the FBI started tracking homicides in 1960. reported on thursday.
“Something has to be done,” a mother who lost her son to violence in the city told WREG.
According to local authorities, the overall crime rate also hit an all-time high. outlet fox 13.
“People in this city are tired of it. We're tired of it. We feel like we're sitting ducks every day,” he said. said Stan Norton, chief operating officer of the car dealership that lost the Corvette. Surveillance video aired by WREG.
“They were using iPads. They have these programs. They could be in a car and be gone within 30 seconds,” Norton told the magazine. “It happens probably 10 times a year. He's lost more than $500,000 in each of the last two years. That's hard to absorb.”
Memphis was an exception because homicides did not decrease after the coronavirus pandemic, the paper noted. Memphis Police Department will solve half of the city's homicides in 2023, down from 68 percent in 2022, WREG investigators found. (Related: Video shows FedEx truck stopped and looted by dozens of people)
“It's a small number of people who are causing the majority of the disruption in our communities,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young told WREG. Young said he and his team are looking at other cities, particularly Omaha, Nebraska, where the number of shooting victims has been cut in half over the past 15 years. Crime reduction strategy known as Omaha 360.
