Twenty years ago the City of Pensacola had over 7,000 more people living within its city limits and only two murders. As I reported yesterday, the City has had seven murders through the first 10 months of 2016, which matches the city’s previous for the past two decades – seven murders in 2012.
Looking at the period 1997-2016, Mayor John Fogg served as the mayor for 12 years (1997-2008). The average murders per 100,000 rate was 3.36. Mike Wiggins served two years as the mayor for 2009-2010, the murder rate was 5.49. During Mayor Ashton Hayward’s five years and 10 months, the murder rate is 8.25.
The City’s murder rate for the entire 20 years is 4.96.
[supsystic-tables id=’88’]
For the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, the murder rate has increased but not as steeply as the City of Pensacola over the past two decades. In 1996, Escambia County had 225,643 citizens under the ECSO’s jurisdiction and 17 murders (rate 7.53 per 100,000). This past year, the County had 28,243 more citizens and 20 murders (rate 7.88).
| Year | Sheriff | Population | Murders | Per 100000 |
| 1996 | Lowman | 225,643 | 17 | 7.53 |
| 1997 | Lowman | 230544 | 11 | 4.77 |
| 1998 | Lowman | 235051 | 15 | 6.38 |
| 1999 | Lowman | 240619 | 7 | 2.91 |
| 2000 | Lowman | 238155 | 15 | 6.30 |
| 2001 | McNesby | 240434 | 14 | 5.82 |
| 2002 | McNesby | 243214 | 15 | 6.17 |
| 2003 | McNesby | 247003 | 8 | 3.24 |
| 2004 | McNesby | 250860 | 18 | 7.18 |
| 2005 | McNesby | 248786 | 9 | 3.62 |
| 2006 | McNesby | 254814 | 10 | 3.92 |
| 2007 | McNesby | 258751 | 17 | 6.57 |
| 2008 | McNesby | 258555 | 18 | 6.96 |
| 2009 | Morgan | 258074 | 15 | 5.81 |
| 2010 | Morgan | 256845 | 26 | 10.12 |
| 2011 | Morgan | 247322 | 14 | 5.66 |
| 2012 | Morgan | 247489 | 15 | 6.06 |
| 2013 | Morgan | 248932 | 23 | 9.24 |
| 2014 | Morgan | 251149 | 18 | 7.17 |
| 2015 | Morgan | 253886 | 20 | 7.88 |
| Per 100,000 citizens | ||||
| Lowman | 5.56 | |||
| McNesby | 5.44 | |||
| Morgan | 7.43 | |||
| For 20 years | 6.18 | |||