I like that, but I use murders per 100k as a bellweather because it's less tamperable. Violent crime has more variability. It used tr be that Baltimore and St louis would be on top and switch places from #1 to #2, but now other cities get into the pic. I can't remember Chicago ever being in the top ten, but for most of my adult life Repubs have railed about Chicago's shooting.

At the state level there is always pressure to fudge the stats in many states. I friend of mine produced stats for Maine, and always said, if you're honest, they don't like you - he wouldn't cook the stats. And I told you about the Philippines. On the old MF there was a cop over in the gun forum who kept and submitted the stats to the fed for a city and he said it was very clear that the FBI didn't want any cooked stats. But there is pressure there to make the stats look better.

With murders there's a dead body, hard to get past that unless you fudge a suicide, etc.

U.S. Cities with High Homicide Rates (2024 Data)

Jackson, Mississippi: The highest reported homicide rate, nearly 78 per 100,000 people.
Birmingham, Alabama: Ranked second with 58.8 homicides per 100,000 residents.
St. Louis, Missouri: Third on the list with 54.1 homicides per 100,000.
Memphis, Tennessee: Fourth, with a rate of 40.6 homicides per 100,000.
Baltimore, Maryland: Fifth, with 34.8 murders per 100,000.
Detroit, Michigan: Sixth, with 31.2 murders per 100,000.
Cleveland, Ohio: Seventh, with 30.0 homicides per 100,000 residents.
Oakland, California: Tenth, with 18.6 homicides per 100,000.