Hawkeye Reporter

As the United States reports record high increases in homicide, Iowa has seen a corresponding increase, rising by 37% since 2018.

Incidents of violent crime in the state have likewise increased by 13% over the same time period, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Crime Data Explorer.

“The rise in crime we’ve seen since the George Floyd death and the riots over the summer is astounding,” Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute said in the Independent Women’s Forum. 

The U.S. recently recorded a 30% jump in homicides — the largest increase in modern history, according to CNN. FBI data goes back to the 1960s, when the bureaus first started recording data.

“Last year we saw the largest percentage increase in homicides in this nation’s history, and it’s gotten worse in 2021,” MacDonald said.

Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at National Center for Health Statistics, underscored this, describing it to CNN as the "the largest increase in 100 years." FBI crime reports show that 21,570 Americans were murdered in 2020, compared to 16,425 in 2019.

In the same year, CNN reported the homicide rate in the country was six homicides per 100,000 people and increased to 7.8 per 100,000 in 2020. Though this is the highest rate since 1995, it is still lower than the 10 homicides per 100,000 seen in the 1980s.

Who 13 reported Iowa police departments, like many others across the country, have faced staffing shortages throughout 2021.

Police retirements were up 45% in mid-2021, with resignations up 18%, according to MacDonald Fox News reported. 

This comes in light of increased scrutiny of police officers and the spread of "defund the police" initiatives across the country, MacDonald told Fox News in July.