Although both are relatively safe now, Los Angeles and Miami were plagued by violent

crime during the ‘80s. Between the two, Los Angeles was certainly more dangerous back
then, but neither city was having much success combatting crime.

(Miami in 1980)

Murder rates

Based on homicide rates alone, Miami exceeded Los Angeles in four of the ten years that
comprise the 1980s (1980, 1981, 1982, 1984). Los Angeles had a higher rate in the other six
years. For the decade as a whole, Los Angeles averaged 26.4 murders per 100,000 residents,
while the Miami area averaged 21.9, both suffering from high crime rates but L.A. the clear
leader.

Being a substantially bigger city, Los Angeles also led Miami in the total number of
homicides in each of the ten years of the 1980s.

Miami

In 1981, at the height of the Miami Drug War, the city had the highest murder rate in the
world. The Miami-Dade morgue ran out of room to store bodies, so they rented a
refrigerated truck from the Burger King corporation that was headquartered in Miami. A
stunning 15% of murders that year were public executions, and Miami became known as the
Drug Capital of the World.

Miami’s homicide rate peaked in 1981 at 36.1 per 100,000. They were the only city in the
United States to dethrone the perennial murder capital East St. Louis during the past 50
years, doing so in 1981 and 1984.

Los Angeles

The homicide rate in Los Angeles was relatively low through the end of 1978. But it rose
sharply in 1979 and peaked in 1980 at 34.6 per 100,000. In fact, 1980 was the first recorded
year in which Los Angeles surpassed Chicago in second place for total homicides, ranking
only behind New York. In each year of the 1980s, Los Angeles ranked second to New York in
murder investigations, finally dropping back below Chicago’s numbers in 1994.

Modern rates

Miami’s homicide rate sharply decreased beginning in 1986. Los Angeles and New York
both saw their murder rates plummet in 1997. Now, all three regions are safe compared to
most metropolitan areas. The current murder rates in those cities per 100,000 are now
extremely low at 8.9 in Miami, 6.4 in Los Angeles, and only 3.8 in New York.

The current murder capitals

Chicago has led the nation in total homicides since 2012. Four cities continue to be plagued
with high murder rates per 100,000:

1. East St. Louis, Illinois (88.3)

2. St. Louis, Missouri (64.5)
3. Baltimore, Maryland (58.6)
4. Gary, Indiana (53.4)
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