BODY BAGS ARE FILLING UP IN PEORIA

Slowly but surely, Peoria is becoming a deadlier place to live.

Worse even than New York City.

We already knew Peoria isn't all sugar and spice. It's a small city with
big-city problems: drugs, gangs, murders.

Still, we've never thought of The River City as The Murder City, especially
compared to some metropolises.

This week, Peoria tallied its 11th murder of the year. Kendrick Webster,
17, was gunned down in South Peoria. Cops don't know if he was the intended
target or the victim of stray gunfire.

The killing made for a couple of newspaper headlines and broadcast
segments, then faded away. Murders are rarely big news in Peoria anymore.
We've come to expect slayings, especially those in South Peoria, as a part
of life here.

Maybe individual homicides don't move us much. But a close look at numbers
gets scary.

The U.S. Department of Justice tracks crimes by city nationwide. Its latest
statistics stem from 2002.

That year, the department pegged Peoria's population at 114,585. That seems
excessive, considering the U.S. Census Bureau hasn't put Peoria's
population that high between 1990 and now.

Regardless, in 2002 Peoria had nine murders. By the Justice Department's
population estimate, that translates to 7.9 murders per 100,000 residents.

That same year, New York City had 587 murders - certainly far greater than
Peoria's body count. But New York City has more than 8 million people, so
its rate per 100,000 residents was 7.3.

That's lower than Peoria. Not by much, but still lower.

Last year, NYC's murder total dropped to 565. Meanwhile, Peoria is going
the other direction.

Last year, we had 15 murders, not including serial-killer victims, whose
death dates are hard to peg.

The U.S. Census put Peoria's 2004 population at 112,720. That makes for
13.3 murders per 100,000 residents - far higher than New York City's rate
in 2002 - which, with fewer slayings there, likely has dipped.

Let's look at the Justice Department's 2002 rates for other cities. The
most deadly city was Gary, Ind., at 57.7 murders per 100,000 residents.
Next came New Orleans, 53.1; Washington, D.C., 45.9; Detroit, 41.8. St.
Louis hit 31.4, while Chicago reached 22.1.

Certainly, Peoria isn't as bad. But glance at the figures from some other
big cities: Boston, 10.1; Forth Worth, 9.5; Houston, 12.5; Las Vegas, 11.9;
Phoenix, 12.6; San Francisco, 8.4; Seattle, 4.5; Tampa, 11.7.

And you don't even want to look at small cities: Des Moines, 4.5;
Naperville, 0.8; Springfield, 4.4.

And possibilities get worse.

With 11 murders so far, Peoria projects to have 17 by year's end. Based on
the 2004 Census figures, the 2005 rate per 100,000 residents would zoom to
15.1.

Also, last year at this time, Peoria had nine murders but finished at 15.
That's an increase of 67 percent over the final third of 2004.

If Peoria sees a similar hike over the next four months, the 2005 tally
would hit 18 - bigger than the city's most recent murder high of 17 in
1993. Eighteen murders would put Peoria's rate at 16 per 100,000 residents.

Meanwhile, we wonder why people keep bolting from Peoria. Maybe we can't
always blame District 150. Maybe people want to leave on their own two feet
before they're dragged away in a body bag.