This ''Bold New River City of the South'' has been Florida's murder capital 12 of the past 17 years and has a higher murder rate than such former crime capitals as Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Its rate of 9.4 murders per 100,000 residents in 2004 places in the top 10 for U.S. cities with a population of 500,000 or larger, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
And it is getting worse this year.
During the year's first quarter, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office investigated 35 murders, compared with 13 for the same period last year. If the rate continues at its current pace, the city could register more than 130 murders, the highest total in more than a decade
That article is dated April 16th.