While murders are down statewide, Merced County leads California in homicides, state Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced Friday.
Merced County had 26 murders in 2010, Harris said. There were also 26 in 2009. The lowest number of murders in Merced County over the past decade was five in 2001, when the county's homicide rate was 2.3 per 100,000 residents.
"Among California’s 35 most populous counties, Monterey County and Merced County experienced the highest homicide rate (10.0 each); Placer County experienced the lowest (0.6)," she said in a report emailed to journalists.
"Over the last decade," she said, "the (state) homicide rate ranged from a high of 6.8 in 2002 and 2005 to this year’s low of 4.7, the lowest homicide crime rate since 1966."
If you kill someone, you are more likely to be caught than in previous years, she added.
"Over the last decade, the homicide clearance rate ranged from a low of 49.6 percent in 2001 to this year’s high of 63.8 percent," she reported.
People in law enforcement still have very dangerous jobs.
"Four California peace officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2010," Harris said. "Between 2001 and 2010, 45 peace officers were killed in the line of duty."
There are 709 inmates in state prisons under sentence of death, Harris reported.
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