By Israel Ramirez |Staff Writer|

The city of San Bernardino has surpassed the city of Chicago as the deadliest city in the U.S.

Chicago being amongst the three largest cities in the nation is also amongst the top of the list in homicides per year, but is shunned by San Bernardino’s homicide ratio with less than a quarter of Chicago’s population.

Having an approximate population of only 216,000 inhabitants, San Bernardino has already seen as much as 50 homicides as October arises, topping Chicago as the deadliest city in the nation according to CBS Los Angeles.

If these homicide rates continue, San Bernardino would end the year with a homicide rate of 31 per 100,000 residents, topping both Chicago who had 18 and Los Angeles with 7 according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Growing up in San Bernardino I’ve watched people being victimized most of my life, it is definitely concerning but I also think today’s technology exposes the violence occurring throughout the city,” said local resident Manuel Veron.

With a total of 50 homicides already being recorded barely edging out of September the city is indeed alerted by the increase in crime.

In 2015, the city saw a total of 44 homicides,including the 14 who were killed during the terrorist attack in early December according to Los Angeles Times.

Many of the CSUSB students, feel safe in the city of San Bernardino because of the countless hours of hard work the city’s police department is achieving day by day.

“I was on campus while the terrorist attack was occurring late last year, It was definitely scary being on school grounds especially with all the mass shootings our country has been facing but the campus police really made us feel safe having officers throughout the entire university,” said student Eduardo Magaña.

Although the city’s homicide levels are still lower than those that occurred in the 1990’s, there is still an increase worth noticing in comparison to recent years. This leaves many to wonder the causes behind the increase in homicides which can be linked to the nations 2008 great recession.

San Bernardino was one of the cities that suffered the most during this time, eventually leading the city into bankruptcy in 2012 with $45 million in debt according to CNN.

With the 2008 great recession and the city declaring bankruptcy this eventually led to the police force being diminished substantially.

Since the police department has been reduced by 30 percent, from 356 to 248 staff members, since triggering an increase in crime according to The Sun.

San Bernardino facing an economic crisis along with an increase in crime rates can now take a short breath.

In 2015, it was announced that San Bernardino was planning to invest an additional $91 million into law enforcement over the next 20 years according to The Sun.

This plan could possibly take a while to take effect, but it is a start in making the city feel safer, like most of the city’s regions.

The city of San Bernardino has faced many hardships within the last few years, in return, city officials are working extremely hard to restore the city we once knew back to its rightful place.