TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Crime continued to drop in Florida during the first half of this year, but the rate of violent crimes, particularly murders, went up, according to state figures released Tuesday.
Crimes tracked by federal officials, ranging from the seemingly minor like shoplifting and bicycle theft to serious ones like rape, robbery and murder dropped from 412,743 in the first six months of 2005 to 411,608 in the first half of 2006, statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement showed.
That represented a decrease of 0.3 percent, continuing a downward trend that has put the state's crime rate at its lowest in more than three decades.
But there was a striking anomaly in this year's figures: an increase in the number of murders. Local police agencies reported 518 killings in Florida through the end of June, up 27 percent from the 408 murders the state saw in the first six months of 2005.
Violent crime in general is bucking the overall trend in Florida, increasing 3.2 percent in the first half of 2006 over the same period last year.
The increase mirrors a mysterious uptick in violent crimes and murders in cities nationwide.
Officials don't have a clear explanation for what may be making the murder rate jump, following small but steady declines through recent years that were attributed in part to tougher sentencing laws.
In Orlando, officials have noted that the city has already seen 41 homicides this year, surpassing its old record of 36 for an entire year, set back in 1982.
Jacksonville had seen 92 murders through the end of last week, passing the 91 the city had in all of 2005. While the city has seen a slowing of murders in recent months, it is on pace to have its highest number of homicides in more than a decade.
Local officials have noted that many murders are drug related, but it's not clear whether some increase in drug use or trade is causing the spike. In fact, officials aren't sure what's going on.
"It's happening across the country too, for some reason," Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday. "I don't know if there's any particular reason that can be identified."
Nationally, violent crime rose 2.2 percent last year, the first increase since 2001.
In a speech to police chiefs on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said federal officials are looking for trends in gang violence, drug trafficking, and how inmates released from prison may have contributed to the increase. Gonzales also acknowledged that some law enforcement agencies have been stretched a little by new duties in anti-terrorism efforts.
