The Metropolitan Police Department is having a “Well, I can’t complain” sort of year. Homicides are down 18.9 percent in the District, and if trends continue, 2005 will be the least-murderous year in recent memory. This may be less product of able police work and more a consequence of an increasing real estate market in the District, though — it seems that criminals are being priced out of living in the District.

According to the Examiner, the homicide rate of neighboring Prince George’s County has increased 57 percent since last year — the county has faced 70 homicides so far in 2005, or one every 48 hours. This increase has puzzled police on both sides of the pourous boundary that divides the two jurisdictions, but some criminolgists speculate that rising housing costs in the District have caused a migration of both people and crime.

District officials may be breathing a sigh of relief now, but if crime can move to Prince George’s County, it can surely move back. Late last year the county and the District deputized police officers that could cross in and out of each others juridictions to chase criminals that often used the county line as a quick means of escaping police on either side, but more long-term solutions may be needed to adequetely address this mobile criminal phenomenon.