Results are in: Duval County no longer state murder capital

After 11 years at the top of a dubious list as the state's murder capital, Duval County's murder rate is no longer the disdain of Jacksonville.

Figures released Tuesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement show Miami-Dade now has that crown, with a rate of 9.03 murders per 100,000 people. Duval is second by a slim margin at a rate of 8.98 murders per 100,000 among counties of 500,000 or more.

Related: Statewide County Crime Report

The number of murders in Duval County dropped from 101 in 2009 to 81 in 2010, according to the annual report.

The statistics were part of an overall crime report that saw a 6.7 percent drop in crime in the past year, which Gov. Rick Scott touted as the 40-year low. Violent crimes - murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault - were down by 10.1 percent while nonviolent burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts were down 6 percent in the state.

In Duval County, overall crime was down 12.2 percent, nearly double the state rate. While rapes were up, robberies and aggravated batteries dropped along with murders. Burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts also were down.

Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford said the city's numbers were falling throughout the year. In the consolidated county, Jacksonville's crime statistics make up the vast majority of those reported.

"In the end we wound up significantly down," Rutherford said several days before the state report was released.

Though it is still too early for a trend to develop, Rutherford said he is seeing a continuing decline in crime this year.

Statistics kept by the Times-Union show the city has logged 19 homicides this year, compared with 30 by this same date in 2009. Not all of those may be ruled murder as some are deemed justifiable, such as a self-defense case.

Rutherford said it is the third year of a downward trend he attributes to a trio of factors, from community collaboration and data-driven policing to what he believes is a focus by State Attorney Angela Corey to prosecute more felonies.

"We need to continue that focus," he said. "We need to keep the community involved. We need to keep the aggressive prosecutions."

Through April 11 compared with last year, reviews of Jacksonville's data show violent crime is down 9.3 percent, property crime is down 7.7 percent and total crime is down 7.3 percent, Rutherford said.

"Even after huge reductions, we're still going down," he said.

The drops from 2009 to 2010 were reflected across Northeast Florida.

Overall crime rates were down 19.2 percent in Nassau County, 11.1 percent in St. Johns, 11 percent in Baker and 9.1 in Clay.

In Putnam crime rose 4.8 percent, though Capt. Johnny Greenwood of the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said violent crimes went down while property crimes increased. In smaller counties, he said, small shifts in numbers can create large changes in percentages.

Those kinds of shifts also explain that some smaller counties have higher murder rates than Duval and Miami-Dade counties. Glades County, for example, had one murder last year, which yielded a 9.26 murder rate for the county of 10,798 people. Taylor and Washington counties each have murder rates higher than 12 percent.

The crime report included information sent by 410 of the state's 415 law enforcement agencies, representing 99.98 percent of the total population of Florida.

dana.treen@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4091