With only a few days left in 2011, the District is likely to see fewer murders this year than at any point in the last five decades.

As of yesterday, the Metropolitan Police Department registered 108 homicides this year to date, an 18 percent drop from the same time in 2010 and the lowest tally since 1963, when 95 people were killed. The milestone caps off two decades of declining murder rates, starting in 1991 when 479 homicides gave the District the inglorious honor of claiming the title as the nation’s murder capital. Last year, the city recorded 132 killings, the same as in 1964.

In recent years, the District’s declining body count has served as something of a barometer on how the city is doing; Mayor Vince Gray has taken to mentioning the historic lows the count has reached, while Police Chief Cathy Lanier remains the single most popular public figure in the city.

A few caveats are in order, though. As the Post’s Charles Lane wrote last week, the District isn’t alone in the declines—murders have fallen across the country, dropping from 9.8 killings per 100,000 residents in 1991 to only 4.8 per 100,000 in 2010.

And while murders are down in the District, other crimes are not. In August, city officials said that total crime was up three percent, while more recently reports have found a spike in domestic incidents. Additionally, the District’s Fraternal Order of Police has consistently argued that Lanier is cooking the books when it comes to crime stats—the number she presents to the public, says FOP President Kristopher Baumann, often fall short of what the FBI publishes annually. (He also said recently that crime has increased due to police being reassigned from neighborhood beats to cover the Occupy encampments.)

“While I am extremely pleased that homicides and other crimes have decreased (as they have nationally), I am greatly concerned that other crimes have increased, particularly given that those increases are the opposite of national trends. Given the disparity between the actual numbers and the public perception, I think it is important that this issue be accurately reported. This is not some technical, esoteric issue. The perception that crime is down in the District (in fact, overall crime is actually up this year in the District) has a real and dangerous impact,” Baumann writes in an email.

Still, none of that will likely dampen the excitement amongst city officials with the news. Even if the District sees a particularly violent weekend, it would take 24 killings to get the city to last year’s body count.