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Three Missouri cities in top ten for most violent crime rate in U.S.

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ST. LOUIS– Violent crimes increased nationwide during 2020 and St. Louis is third in the nation when it comes to its violent crime rate. Kansas City and Springfield, Mo. also landed among the top ten cities in the country according to new data from the FBI.

Nationwide, violent crimes in 2020 went up by a more moderate 5.6% over the previous year.

National Weather Service reports ‘thundersnow’ in St. Louis

In St. Louis, the increase was less than the national average at 3.8%. There were 6,017 violent crimes last year according to the FBI. That is up from 5,792 incidents in 2019 but down from the 10-year high of 6,461 in 2017.

Kansas City reportedly has the 8th highest violent crime rate in the U.S. It had 7,919 violent crimes in 2020, a 9.2% increase over the prior year.

Springfield saw 2,545 violent crimes in 20202, a decrease of 1% from the year before. Those numbers put the city at number 10.

The Detroit News calculated the following data when it comes to the most violent crime rates in the U.S.:

CityNumber of Violent Crimes in 2020Rate per 100,000 people
Memphis, TN15,3102,418
Detroit, MI14,3702,248
St. Louis6,0171,995
Little Rock, AR3,6571,805.11
South Bend, IN1,7651,706
Cleveland6,2811,685
Milwaukee9,4071,629
Kansas City, MO7,9191,558
Lansing, MI1,6991,508
Springfield, MO2,5451,504

Last month, Safewise put out a list of the 10 most dangerous cities in America. Springfield came in at number 5, the only spot in Missouri.

Related Topic: Is Springfield a dangerous city?

Murder rates were also up across the country. St. Louis also has the highest murder rate in the U.S. according to the new data. St. Louis City had 263 homicides in 2020 with a homicide rate of 87 per 100,000 people.

Homicides are down so far this year compared to lasts in St. Louis and Kansas City.

Related Story: Homicides dropping in Kansas City, increasing in other areas

In fact, Kansas City’s homicide rate has dropped 24% over the past year, a trend that is not happening in other cities, according to police.

At this point in 2020, there had already been 147 homicides, 35 more than what the department is investigating in 2021.

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Lorie Orum

Update: 2024-05-18