Ballard: Indy crime not out of control

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Mayor Greg Ballard says Tuesday morning’s shooting coupled with the recent Black Expo shootings that injured 10 are having a negative impact on the city's reputation.

But he says the perception that crime in Indianapolis is out of hand is not the reality.

24-Hour News 8 checked the crime statistics; here’s what we found.

So far, there have been 68 murders in Marion County this year.

Compare that to 62 in 2007, 69 in 2008, and 56 in 2009. Those numbers are for homicides that took place from January through July of each year.

"City wide right now violent crime is down 13 percent. A lot of areas we've identified as hot spots, the crime truly is going down" said Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski. "August is off to a bad start with the two we had last night. But we are confidant the work we are doing with the community is going to make a difference by the end of the year."

Despite the recent multiple victim shootings, summer time homicide rates for 2010 are down. For the three month period from May through July there were 25 homicides in 2010, 31 homicides in 2009, and 37 homicides in 2008.

And when it comes to those end of the year numbers, Police will have their work cut out to keep the homicide rate at or below last years number.

In 2007 the city had 119 homicides; In 2008, there were 121. The number dropped significantly in 2009 when there were 102 homicides.