Prince George's County is two murders away from breaking its record high for homicides, with seven weeks remaining in 2005, according to the Washington Post.
The record set in 1991 was 154 homicides. One hundred fifty-two people have been murdered in Prince George's in this year; this is an average of one homicide every other day.
The majority of the victims were young black men in their twenties. According to the police department, 82 percent of the homicides were committed with guns, and 67 percent involved drugs. Other crime rates also drastically rose from last year. Robbery grew 23 percent and carjacking rose by 59 percent. Still, despite the homicide rates in D.C. falling by 6 percent this year, there were 13 more deaths in the District than in Prince George's.
The police department was authorized to have over 1400 officers, but it currently only has about 1300. It is in the midst of a massive recruiting drive to hire more officers.
