Homicides for the year in Philadelphia are now projected to surpass 400 after a brief downturn in crime in September, according to city police.
The projection for the year is up after a rash of shootings in the city western areas, which include Penn.
As of Saturday, the West and Southwest detective divisions of the city had seen 15 homicides for this month alone. During that same time period, there were 52 shootings, not all of them fatal, in these same patrol regions of West Philadelphia. Penn is located in the Southwest Division.
One person has been killed on campus this year, the victim of a shooting in the SEPTA trolley station near 37th and Spruce streets in June. The 16th and 18th police districts, which border the area patrolled by Penn Police, have also seen murder rates rise.
According to police, the increased number of shooting victims in West Philadelphia is due in part to the activities of an area drug-dealing operation.
The number of homicides in the city this year is 333 as of yesterday.
This number is up 6.5 percent - or 21 homicides - from last year at this time. Over the summer, the murder rate was up as much as 7 percent over the previous year.
Last year's murders totalled 380 across the city, an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the highest since 1997. If murders continue at the current rate, the city will have seen 403 by the end of the year.
While Penn students are wary of the increased homicide rates across West Philadelphia, some, including College junior Jessica Haralson, say that general safety measures will prevent them from being directly impacted by the rise in violent crime.
"I believe that the increase in homicide is unfortunate, but I also suspect that much of this crime is drug-related, so if I take basic safety precautions, I will be safe," Haralson said. Increased crime rates in West Philadelphia "would probably influence me not to walk too far away from campus late at night," she added.
