On Thursday, I posted a picture that showed crime scene tape draped over the city seal, and noted that we're running about even with homicides this year compared to last. A reader wrote in: "Numbers might be similar, but population is less. Thus, murder rate is up. Wanna bet?"

The reader is partially correct though I was comparing 2009 to 2008 and the population hasn't changed that much in the course of one year. So I'm betting that our murder rate -- 36.9 per 100,000 population -- will remain just about the same this year.

That number, if you remember, put us second per-capita in the United States, behind Detroit (with a rate of 37.4), for cities with a population over a half million. But our rate is substantially better than it was in the 1990s, when we suffered a solid decade of 300 or more killing each year. Since 2001, killings have been under 300 earch year the city has gained some residents. In 1999, for example, Baltimore's murder rate was 48.2

As of this morning, we've had 225 murders in Baltimore this year, compared to 226 at this time last year, which ended with 234.

Here are some murder rates from other cities last year: Washington (31), Philadelphia (22), Chicago (18), Boston (10) and New York (six).

New York City has seen some remarkable drops in killings (they've had 440 as of Dec. 13, the latest posting on their Internet site). Here's more comprehensive look at New York and Baltimore homicide maps.

Here's a few stats from Baltimore and New York:

New York murders: 1990 (2,262); 1995 (1,181); 1998 (629); 2001 (649); 2008 (523)

Baltimore murders: 1990 (305); 1995 (325); 1998 (313); 2001 (261); 2008 (234)