MACON, Ga. — After Macon-Bibb County hit 50 homicides for the year, some people asked how the county's homicide rate compared to big cities nationwide.
One person asked if Macon was becoming "Little Chicago."
We set out to Verify whether Macon's homicide rate is one of the highest nationwide.
Our sources are Macon-Bibb crime statistics, FBI crime data, and Crimealytics.
While the FBI doesn't track crime rates for the current year, some analysts across the nation do.
One of them is a consultant called Crimealytics, which put together a national top 10 list.
They pulled the numbers from dozens of big-city websites that list crime numbers online.
They ranked them based on homicides per 100,000 people through the first half of the year.
Now, through July 1, Macon has 37 homicides. That's about 24 per 100,000 people.
So how does that stack up?
That would put Macon fifth on the Crimealytics list, behind New Orleans, Baltimore, Birmingham, and St. Louis.
Chicago is not even in the top 10.
That list only covers cities bigger than 200,000 people and those that report their running crime totals online, but based on those number, we Verified, yes, Macon-Bibb's homicide rate is among the nation's highest this year, but not the highest.
After this weekend's three deaths, Macon-Bibb is on track for around 73 homicides in 2022. The county set a record last year with 54.