After two years of declines, Nashville has experienced a surge in homicides this year, leaving local law enforcement and community leaders grappling to find a solution, The Tennessean reports. As of Wednesday, there had been 40 criminal homicides in Nashville, just one shy of last year’s total of 41. At that same time last year, the city had 25 homicides. The all-time high was 112 in 1997. “The murder rate is up and if we don’t do something in the next few months it could go above last year’s total,” said Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier. “Years ago, people who may have had issues had a fist fight but now it just seems more and more youth are packing and for some reason think they have to go around carrying firearms and shooting people.”
Of the 40 homicides so far this year, 20 remain unsolved. Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson said the increase in this year’s homicide count, particularly over the record lows of 2013 and 2014, is “something Nashville as a whole should declare as absolutely unacceptable. The message in Nashville needs to be strong and reinforced that violence, particularly involving firearms, is against everything we believe. While I am aware that many American cities have seen significant increases in homicide this year, we in this community can make a difference by reinforcing to our teenagers and young adults that violence is not the answer to resolve conflict.”