You may remember that back on the campaign trail, Mayor Nutter made a promise about crime statistics. He pledged that if elected mayor, he would not run for re-election, if the murder rate in 2010 was not below 288.
Nutter made that promise at a mayoral forum in early 2007, not long after the city racked up 405 murders in 2006. But the rate has been steadily declining since 2006. So far this year, there have been 137 homicides, according to the Philadelphia police website. That's down 12 percent from this point last year.
If the city remains 12 percent below 2008 – when there were 332 homicides – then, by our math, this year's murder rate would come in at about 265.
Of course, the end of the year is a long way off. And Nutter's pledge is for 2010, not 2009. But he must be glad those numbers are moving downward.