PHOENIX — With 214 murders by November, Phoenix is on pace to have one of its highest murder tolls in a decade.

But because of its ballooning population, the city’s murder rate remains an average 14.5 per 100,000 people, the same as 2005. It’s about three times the national average.

The number of murders climbed this year in New York and many other major U.S. cities after many years of decline, reaching their highest levels in a decade in some places. But Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff appear to have bucked that trend….

….In Flagstaff, Sgt. Tom Boughner said police reported just one murder in 2006. Boughner said police usually investigate about two murders each year in the northern Arizona city of about 57,000 people.

KVOA