Violent crime tends to pick up in summer months, and in July, Minneapolis recorded nine homicides, totaling 43 on the year, according to a Star Tribune database. A downturn since then now has the city just under last year’s count through Aug. 13. But homicides here remain up by two-thirds from 2019.

St. Paul is somewhat similar, showing 16 homicides this year compared to 21 last year through July, according to a Star Tribune database. That database does not stretch back to 2019, but according to police, who track homicides differently, the city recorded 13 through July that year.

That the Twin Cities have shown declines in homicides but are yet to return to pre-pandemic numbers is common among American cities.

Two-thirds of the 29 cities studied for homicide trends by the Council on Criminal Justice have not returned to pre-pandemic numbers, the report said. The Twin Cities were not included in the homicide study.

Homicides nationally are down 13% from last year and are just under 2019 levels. That’s largely because of significant drops in big cities that tend to have higher homicide counts.

If the trend can hold, a return to 2019 levels would mark a significant milestone considering homicides jumped by nearly a third in 2020, the biggest single-year leap in U.S. history, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.