A new report from a public safety group found that Miami-Dade County’s homicide rate is way down since 2020 — especially in ZIP codes that had some of the highest rates just five years ago.
Scaling Safety is a community-based public safety initiative operating in five areas around the U.S., including Miami-Dade. Using local medical examiner data, Scaling Safety found the county experienced a 39% decline in all types of homicides and a 42% overall drop in firearm-related homicides. Their report was published last week.
READ MORE: What happened when climate gentrification came to Liberty City
Most notably, the report points out that two Miami-Dade ZIP codes saw significant drops in homicides: 33147, which comprises a swath of Liberty City, and 33142, which includes parts of the Allapattah and Brownsville neighborhoods.
The Liberty City ZIP code saw a drop from 31 recorded homicides in 2020 to just five in 2024, taking it from the number one ZIP code with the most homicides in the county to the 10th.
”33147 which represents much of Liberty City has often been considered the most violent ZIP code by far in Miami-Dade County. And so to see the type of dramatic changes … is not only historical, but it's the type of thing that has the potential to make Miami-Dade County a model and how you reduce violence,” said Subhash Kateel, director of advocacy for Scaling Safety and former Miami-Dade County resident.
Meanwhile, ZIP code 33142 dropped from 20 homicides in 2020 to eight in 2024.
Scaling Safety attributes much of this decline in violent crime to community-based safety initiatives that focus on grassroots groups at the local level targeting high-risk areas with support programs.
“We found a clear relationship between presence of violence intervention programs funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and the trend of a reduced level of homicide for the ZIP codes that did have a decrease,” said Anne Devan-Song, data scientist and co-author of the report.
One of the groups in Miami-Dade working on community-based safety is the Circle of Brotherhood – an organization made up of primarily Black men that do violence intervention and prevention in high-risk neighborhoods.
The organization employs “Peacemakers” that are trained to spot a potential conflict and de-escalate a situation before it leads to violence.
“They’re there before things pop off to prevent things from popping off. I've seen our peacemakers do everything from stop gunplay from happening to stop young people from cutting themselves,” said Brother Lyle Muhammad, executive director of the Circle of Brotherhood.
Muhammad relays one instance in which his staff members noticed two young men getting into a fight outside one of the organizations’ meetings and prevented an instance of gun violence.
“ The peacemakers, because of their training, they knew how to deescalate the situation. They got the young man who was going to get a gun to not do it. They actually brought about a resolution to that entire situation,” Muhammad told WLRN.
The Scaling Safety Report also points to other public safety initiatives sponsored through the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County and the federal government. Programs like the city’s Group Violence Intervention Strategy, the county’s Anti-Violence Initiative/Group Violence Initiative and the Department of Justice’s Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative.
The Miami Police Department and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez celebrated a "dramatic" drop in violent crime in July in response to new data on mid-year crime statistics. In an Instagram post shared with WLRN by the police department, the City of Miami attributes the drop in crime to "strategic policing, innovative tech, and strong community partnerships.”
The Trump Administration recently slashed some of these grants at the federal level, abruptly ending some gun violence prevention programs. The Circle of Brotherhood has rallied in protest of these cuts.
”We are at a stage where resources are very, very low, but the success rates have been very, very high,” Muhammad said.
The groups hope to show elected officials and local stakeholders that community-based violence prevention has a tangible impact on violent crime to replicate those programs across the country.
