Murder rate is down this year

During the Democratic debate in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton was asked about gun control. As part of her answer, she talked about reducing gun violence in cities, and mentioned Philadelphia's struggle with that.

"You know, more than one person, on average, a day is murdered in Philadelphia," Clinton said. "And Mayor (Michael) Nutter is very committed, as the mayor of this great city, to try to do what he can to stem the violence."

A murder a day means more than 365 murders per year. Last year, Philadelphia did hit that unhappy milestone with 392 murders. That was down slightly from 2006, when there were 406 murders.

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This year, though, murders have declined since the beginning of the year. The home page of the Philadelphia Police Department tracks the year's murders, and the day after the Philadelphia debate, the number stood at 87, down from 114 on the same date a year ago. At that rate, the murder rate is about 20 percent less than a murder a day.

So previous year's statistics do bear out Clinton's point, but the statistics for 2008 do not. For this reason, we find her statement to be Half True.