Miami mayor: Here’s the full story on city’s homicide rate drop | Opinion
I read with great interest your Sept. 8 editorial, “Homicides plummet in two Miami-Dade ZIP codes.” While the data cited is encouraging and the recognition of community organizations such as the Circle of Brotherhood is well deserved, your editorial leaves out crucial context that explains why Miami has seen historic declines in violence.
First, the broader picture: Miami today is not only safer, it is also stronger economically and socially. Few cities in America can match our combination of low unemployment, surging wages and top rankings in the nation for health and happiness.
For three years, the Miami area had the highest wage growth in America. Those factors — high wages, low unemployment, better health outcomes and civic optimism — contribute powerfully to stability and public safety.
No government program alone could achieve what a vibrant economy and a thriving community produce.
That said, we are proud of the partnerships we have supported. Based on prior Miami Herald reporting, I decided to allocate with the commission’s support significant funding — $1 million — to the Circle of Brotherhood. Their frontline work in mediating conflicts and preventing retaliation has saved lives, and I commend their leadership.
But this is only one part of a larger equation.
Unlike many other American cities, Miami has consistently increased funding for our police officers rather than cutting it. We have remained firmly pro-law enforcement, and we rejected policies such as “no-cash bail” that elsewhere created a revolving door for offenders.
We also invested in technology that gives our officers cutting-edge tools: ShotSpotter to rapidly detect gunfire — a program I first championed when I was a commissioner — National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NABIN) for ballistics (previously only available to the FBI); Cellbrite to strengthen evidence collection and most recently, a drone program to improve situational awareness.
And we are continuing to move forward: In this year’s budget, the city commission is taking the first step toward adding 300 police officers over the coming years. That commitment, combined with targeted community investments, made possible the gains the Herald rightly highlighted.
The homicide rate in Miami has gone down every single year of my mayoralty, with the exception of the COVID year.
When I first took office, I made it a personal mission: For three months, I ran a 5K each week beginning and ending exactly 24 hours after a homicide in the location where it had occurred. It was a way to honor lives lost and to make clear that tolerating violence was not an option.
To this day, when you walk into my City Hall office, you see the images of children we lost to gun violence. That constant reminder shaped the culture of our police department and our city leadership.
Finally, this Editorial Board can’t keep attacking President Donald Trump while shielding former President Joe Biden. The Trump administration’s Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security sent federal officers to restore order in cities where Democrat leadership had lost control — a move even blue city mayors admitted was necessary.
Biden and his allies chose a different path: flooding the economy with spending that fueled inflation, drove housing costs sky high and left crime to fester in Los Angeles, Chicago,Washington, D.C. and New York.
Miami shows there’s another way: strong leadership, pro-growth policies and zero tolerance for chaos have made this a model of safety while Democrat-run cities spiral.
The results here speak for themselves. Miami’s annual homicide totals have fallen to near-record lows — just 27 in one recent year, compared with a record low of 24 and a tragic high of 220 in 1980.
These numbers are not the product of one program or one grant. They are the product of a citywide culture that values life, supports its police, invests in prevention and creates economic opportunity.
Your editorial rightly notes that “addressing gun violence requires a delicate balance between policing and solutions from within a community.”
Miami is showing what that balance looks like in practice. It deserves recognition in full — not only as a model of community investment but as a city that has married economic strength, proactive policing, innovation and civic pride into a strategy that works.
Francis Suarez is the mayor of Miami.