Stay tuned in to our local news coverage: Listen to 90.7 WMFE on your FM or HD radio, the WMFE mobile app or your smart speaker — say “Alexa, play NPR” and you’ll be connected.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s overall crime rate went down over the first six months of 2020, but murders spiked over the same period from the year before. That’s according to statistics released by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Thursday. Overall, crime dropped 11.7%, but murders rose from 512 to 595, or 16.2%. Murders by guns rose by an even higher percentage. There were 379 murders committed with a firearm in the first six months of 2019, compared to 466 in 2020. That’s an increase of 23%. Reported rapes declined by 9.5%, from 4,224 in the first half of 2019 to 3,821 during the same period in 2020.