Baltimore's homicide rate is the focal point in the city's fight against crime, and the year to year figures will show that killings rose in 2009. On the surface, with most other large cities recording declines, it looks like the city took a step backwards.

But digging deeper, nearly all of the indicators that law enforcement authorities look to to understand crime trends showed significant improvement. From our story that ran today:

-Four more people were killed, yes, but that's basically the same as last year's 20-year-low. But adding non-fatal shootings, all told about 130 fewer people were shot compared with 2008.

-Total gun crime dropped by 16 percent, including homicides by gun, non-fatal shootings, aggravated assaults involving guns, street robberies and carjackings.

-For years, victims under age 25 have represented as much as half of the city's homicide victims. But in 2009, they made up just 37 percent, the lowest figure in at least 12 years, according to available figures compiled by the Police Department's homicide unit.

-15 juveniles were killed, down from an average of 25 per year between 2004 and 2008. Overall, 40 percent fewer juveniles were wounded in shootings.

Check out this graphic for an array of statistics related to the year in crime, including data on the day and time that homicides occur.

With all those encouraging numbers, Baltimore's progress is muted when compared to other cities. Every city I called, with the exception of Newark, NJ, saw a decline. (Newark, like Baltimore, had a large drop last year and is still generally down).  New Orleans and St. Louis remain in a class by themselves in terms of murder rate (among cities with a population over 250,000), but it remains to be seen whether Baltimore will overtake Detroit as No. 3 in the next tier. After Detroit misreported its homicide total to the FBI last year, they refused to give The Baltimore Sun a preliminary figure this year. 

Another statistic worth noting:  There were 15 people in 2009 who were victims of violence in a prior year but died this year. That is far higher than the typical number of prior year deaths, which was 7, 6, and 5 the past three years.  You could argue that had that number not been so high, the city would have been down, albeit slightly.