Delaware AG touts Delaware gun crime decline, outpacing national trend

DELAWARE – The Office of the Attorney General in Delaware is touting a marked decrease in violent crime across the First State in 2023.

Year-over-year shooting incidents are down approximately 30% statewide, compared to a crime surge in 2020-2021. Summer shootings, which historically are the most violent months of the year, are down 50%, according to Delaware Department of Justice spokesman Mat Marshall. 

Marshall tells 47 ABC WMDT that national estimates place the decline in crime across us at between 12% and 17%. As national estimates for the murder rate decline, it is also declining in Wilmington. In that city alone, Marshall says the murder rate is down 55% since 2020. Dover’s numbers are similar.

“Up until December of this year, Dover didn’t have a single homicide. Compare that to 2020, and there were nine homicides in Dover,” said Delaware Deputy Chief Attorney General Alex Mackler. He added that more than 500 guns that had been confiscated by police in Dover in 2023.

Mackler says the data shows the crime rate returning to levels below 2018 across in the state, and in urban centers, including Wilmington and Dover. He adds that gun crimes have been a priority for the Attorney General’s office. However, he says that a drop in crimes committed is just as important a measure of success as convictions.

“It comes down to our prosecutors in each county working with the larger police departments in each county,” Mackler said. “To focus on the hotspots, to focus on the areas where there are, in recent history, more violent events, and trying to figure out who’s driving that violence.”