If producers at HBO wanted to make new episodes of The Wire, they might have to start by scouting for a new location.

Back in 2002, real life Baltimore made a believable setting for a gritty crime

drama, but the murder rate there has fallen nearly 60% in the last five years, despite a

serious police shortage. From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Baltimore's turnaround

is remarkable, but it is not unique.

Crime has been declining throughout the U.S. at rates many communities might once have thought impossible.

If we want to keep those trends moving in the right direction, it will be helpful to understand why it's happened and who's responsible.

Henry Grabar has been covering this for The Atlantic where he's a staff writer.

His story is titled The Great Crime Decline is Happening All Across the Country.

Henry, welcome back to think.

Thanks for having me.

We should address this right off the top so we keep people with us.

Many Americans seem inclined to believe crime is always getting worse, regardless

of what is in the data. Do you have any sense of why culturally we find it hard to believe

that crime statistics can actually improve? Well, one thing that I think that has particularly

changed in the last few years that has really changed the dynamic around the way people perceive crime is the rise of viral video.

And I think we just can't underestimate how likely it is that people are sharing videos of disturbing acts being committed on, say, public transit, to take a notable

recent example from last year, and that is influencing that perception of what is happening

in their community around them.

So I think that is part of the issue, and then the other part of it, obviously, is that

we've had, you know the Donald Trump has been very

committed to describing a lot of these American cities as being you know

...