In the US, people are getting away with murder. The clearance rate, the share of cases that result in an arrest or are otherwise solved, was 58% in 2023. In other words, a murderer's chance of getting caught within a year essentially comes down to a coin flip. For other crimes, clearance rates are even lower. Only 8% of car thefts result in an arrest. Compared with its peers, America overall does an unusually poor job of solving killings. The murder clearance rates of other rich nations, including Australia, Britain, and Germany, hover in the 70s, 80s and even 90s. Several issues, including a lack of resources, the sheer volume of cases, and a distrust of the police, have converged to make the jobs of American detectives much more difficult. "It's a serious problem," said Philip Cook, a criminal justice researcher at Duke University. The lack of legal accountability emboldens criminals, leading to more crime and violence resulting in "a vicious cycle."
Every eleven minutes, someone uses a firearm to kill someone in the US. American police are the direct descendants of the Slave Patrol, more akin to political control than genuine sleuthing. There are probably more stories of police abuse than a crime being solved on any given day in the US. A USDJ just ruled that an abusive, violent Seattle police officer can be sued. When we add the tsunami of firearms which have permeated the country, distrust of the police because of their bad seeds, and economic inequalities, the result is a high homicide rate and just not enough Columbos' to solve all the crimes.
