QPP2: Jeff Asher; Are Murder Rates Rising?

Jeff Asher is a crime analyst and consultant based out of New Orleans. He previously worked as a crime analyst for the City of New Orleans. Jeff runs the NOLA Crime News blog and can be found on twitter @Crimealytics (https://twitter.com/crimealytics).
The 2017 murder rate is expected to be on par with that of 2009, well at the bottom of the historic post-1990 decline, yet still higher than the lowest recorded rate in 2013. Notably, the Brennan Center states that half the murder increase from 2014 to 2017 (55.6 percent) is attributable to two cities — Chicago and Baltimore. Yet in reality, the figure is closer to 14 percent.
Peter and Jeff had independently discussed some issues (http://www.copinthehood.com/2017/09/quality-policing-podcast-interview-with.html)with this report, and wanted to dig into them.