So far, the carnage is lower in 2013

COMPARED WITH last year's bloody start - when the city's homicide rate reached nearly a murder a day - this year's tally is off to a dramatically better start.

Through Thursday, the city recorded 29 homicides so far in 2013 - a 40 percent decrease from a staggering 48 slayings as of the same date last year.

This year's total is actually the lowest at this point in any year since at least 2006.

City Public Safety Director Michael Resnick credits a number of new crime-fighting strategies with the year's early signs of progress - a nagging black eye for Philadelphia that's consistently higher than rates in many other large U.S. cities. But he said it would be premature to declare the drop in homicides a win.

"No one's declaring victory. It's a great start," Resnick said.

"Last year, we had a really bad New Year's," he added, referring to the five homicides in the city within the first 24 hours of 2012.

Resnick said a number of strategies may be credited with the reduction in homicides, including police commanders identifying crime patterns and hot spots in their areas, and deploying officers accordingly.

A reshuffling of top police administrators and officers also "reinvigorated" the department, Resnick said.

He also credited GunStat, a collaboration among city agencies including the police department, District Attorney's Office and Mayor's Office that targets some of the city's most violent areas based on gun-crime statistics.

This year, Resnick said, the solve rate has also been higher for homicide cases.