Homicide is Soaring in the Greeley, CO Metro Area

Homicides are rising at a record pace in the United States. According to a recent FBI report, there were a total of 21,570 murders committed in 2020, the most of any year in the last two and a half decades and up nearly 30% from 2019 — the largest annual increase on record.

The spike in homicides came during a tumultuous year. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and left millions of Americans out of work. Footage of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer rattled confidence in American law enforcement and sparked nationwide protests. Firearms sales soared, and tens of millions of new guns proliferated across communities nationwide. Here is a look at the states where gun sales are surging.

Some experts speculate that each of these factors likely played a role in rising homicide rates nationwide. While it may be years before the precise causal factors are identified, many U.S. cities are bearing the brunt of the rash of deadly violence. In metropolitan areas across the country, the increase in homicides last year eclipsed the national surge — in some cases, many times over.

Greeley, Colorado, is one of only four large U.S. metro areas where murders more than tripled in the last year. There were 16 homicides reported in the area in 2020, up 220% from five in 2019. Despite the increase, the local homicide rate of 4.8 per 100,000 people remains below the national rate of 6.5 per 100,000.

All other forms of violent crime also increased in Greeley last year, contributing to a near-nation leading 50% surge in the violent crime rate — nearly 10 times the nationwide increase. The Greeley chief of police attributes the spike to disruptions caused by the pandemic, including the release of some inmates from jails and prisons to improve social distancing measures within the facilities.

All data in this story is at the metro area level from the FBI. Only metro areas with populations of at least 250,000 residents and at least one homicide in 2019 were considered.