Color me dubious.
Indeed. In Houston HPD is deliberately undercounting murders including one the Examiner determined a homicide that HPD later decided was a suicide.
The victim was shot 3 times in the chest and once in the back of the head.
http://www.khou.com/news/defenders/investigate/stories/khou071119_tj_murdercount.1d78917e.html
Looks like that trend is spreading across the country.