Mayor of Tuscaloosa promotes reduction in crime and murder rate at 20-year high

A murder this weekend in the city of Tuscaloosa hit a 20-year high, according to data and historical reports provided Tuesday.

The homicide at the Creekwood Village Apartments before dawn Saturday was the 16th in the city this year, a city spokesman told the thread, the highest number since 2006.

The data in the table below comes from a thread query asking for the annual number of homicides within city limits since 2000.

The data above shows totals for the year, not year-to-date, so this year's homicide count has already hit a 20-year high, and there are still more than four months to go.

But last week, Mayor Walt Maddox celebrated a drop in crime during the State of the Community panel and again in his weekly Mayor's Minute commentary, saying local media is partly to blame for creating the impression that the situation is worse than the data shows.

“Our top priority is public safety, and 40 percent of the city's budget is dedicated to this essential service,” Maddox said at the event and in his written message. “The efforts of the Tuscaloosa Police Department are making a difference. Since 2006, crime has decreased even as the city's population has increased by over 25,000 people. However, it often feels the other way around.”

“We receive news on our smartphones 24/7, and stories about crime increase engagement and interaction on digital media platforms,” ​​Maddox said. “To put it simply, we are bombarded with the same story for 48 to 96 hours.”

To use one of Maddox's favorite quotes from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” So how can his messages seemingly contradict the record-high murder rate?

As the thread first reported in April of last year, crime in the city is down year-over-year in all of the “Big Five” categories that communities report in reports compiled by the FBI, including murder, burglaries, robberies, car break-ins and auto thefts.

And especially if you look back five years, 18 years to Maddox's first term, or 30 years back, the declines are striking across the board – especially given the growth of the city's population over the same period.

“Violent crime in Tuscaloosa has decreased 49% from 1993 to 2022, and property crime has decreased 59% during that time period,” a city spokesperson told the thread.

This trend is worth celebrating, and both Maddox and Blankley did so in their comments on this report.

“The incredible efforts of the Tuscaloosa Police Department have made our community safer. That is what our citizens deserve, and TPD officers are tireless in protecting our neighborhoods and businesses,” Maddox said. “TPD's accomplishments are even more remarkable when you consider the population growth of the past two decades coupled with the immense challenges facing the state's mental health and criminal justice system.”

Blankley was sworn in as chief of the Tuscaloosa Police Department in March 2020 and is also proud of the long-term data that shows a safer city.

“Our officers have done and continue to do a great job protecting our community, and the data we provide backs that up,” Blankley said. “We arrest and re-arrest the same people, but we are only the first step in the criminal justice system. In addition, we must trust our state leaders to address mental health issues, recidivism and the proliferation of illegal firearms on the streets.”

Still, a decades-long trend of burglaries and car thefts can't make up for the bloodiest year since 2006. While some of the city's 16 homicides likely won't be ruled murder — two were committed by TPD officers and a third was possibly self-defense — you don't have to go far to hear others acknowledge the problem.

“Today we are faced with a lot of bad things in our community. Violent crime is at a high level – it's sad – I've been a police officer for 27 years and I've never seen anything this bad,” Deputy Police Chief Sebo Sanders said in June, when there were still only 12 murders within city limits this year, not 16.

“We turn on the television and see teenagers being killed, teenagers being shot, teenagers being locked up for a senseless crime, and when you ask them what's going on, they have no idea,” Sanders said.

The 16 murders in the city represent a number not seen since 2006. That year also saw ten other murders in the greater Tuscaloosa County area, meaning the police, now called the Violent Crimes Unit, investigated a total of 26 cases.

According to the Tuscaloosa News, 2006 was the deadliest year in the region since 1975 and set a historic record.

So far, the nationwide number for 2024 is 22, according to data stored by the thread, with 16 cases committed in the city of Tuscaloosa.

For more crime reports and other news from West Alabama, visit the Tuscaloosa thread.