Fact Check: Record crime in Rochester

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — News10NBC has been reporting that homicides in Rochester are at the highest rate we’ve seen in years.

One viewer emailed us asking if that’s really true. He remembers homicide numbers into the 70s when he was younger.

Nikki Rudd checked the facts.

Rochester Police Captain Frank Umbrino heads up the Major Crimes Unit.

Rudd asked him for the homicide numbers he has for the city. Umbrino was able to provide a list going back to 1970.

The highest number of homicides in the city were in 1991, 1993 and 1994 with 69, 68 and 66 homicides respectively.

The years with the fewest homicides? 1970, 1980, 2009, 2017 and 2018. In each of those years, there were fewer than 30 homicides.

We should note, Umbrino said he can’t vouch for how accurate the early numbers are especially in the 1970s because the record-keeping was not as good as it is now.

"It’s kind of hard to believe, but the times were different then," Umbrino said.

As of Nov. 10, we’ve had 68 homicides in Rochester this year. Again, the record is 69 in 1991.

Click here for a look at homicide data from RPD’s open data portal.

Here are the numbers RPD homicide numbers by year:

Year	Number of Homicides
1970	22
1971	32
1972	30
1973	35
1974	33
1975	31
1976	31
1977	55
1978	38
1979	31
1980	29
1981	38
1982	34
1983	33
1984	40
1985	30
1986	40
1987	31
1988	39
1989	44
1990	43
1991	69
1992	50
1993	68
1994	66
1995	60
1996	50
1997	57
1998	48
1999	32
2000	42
2001	45
2002	45
2003	57
2004	37
2005	54
2006	52
2007	49
2008	44
2009	27
2010	40
2011	34
2012	38
2013	42
2014	35
2015	37
2016	44
2017	29
2018	28
2019	32
2020	51
2021	68 (As of Nov. 10)