Nashville’s Murder Rate Hits A New Low

Other major crimes are also expected to be down for 2014, according to Metro Nashville’s police chief. Credit: voteprime via Flickr

For the second year in a row, murders hit a historic low in Nashville. There were just 41 criminal homicides in Nashville in 2014. That’s the smallest figure since the county and city governments consolidated in 1963, when police tracked 45 murders.

The highest year for murders in Nashville was 1997 when 112 people were killed.

Police chief Steve Anderson gives some credit to a recent focus on curtailing domestic violence. Just four of the murders from 2014 involved intimate partners. In 2013, there were nine.

Major crime figures won’t be out for a few weeks, but Anderson believes crime will be down by roughly 3 percent over last year.

Other cities are seeing murder rates dip, including the nation’s largest. New York – like Nashville – had the fewest homicides since 1963. By contrast, Pittsburgh saw the highest number of murders in five years.