Homicides fall 18% across 30 US cities, crime continues to ease

Homicides fell 18% in the first half of 2026 across 30 American cities, a drop of about 215 killings that extends the post-pandemic easing in violent crime. The Council on Criminal Justice said 9 of the 13 offenses it tracks also declined, with shoplifting the only category still above 2019 levels.

The mid-year update, prepared by Ernesto Lopez and Bobby Boxerman, builds on a crime-tracking series the Council on Criminal Justice began in July 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests that followed George Floyd’s killing. That timing matters because the group started measuring crime just after the sharp 2020 surge that pushed homicide into the center of the national debate.

The retreat has been broad. In CCJ’s year-end 2025 update, homicides fell 21% from 2024 to 2025 across 35 cities, equal to about 922 fewer killings. The January 22, 2026 analysis found homicide rates down in 31 of those 35 cities, with Denver and Omaha, Nebraska, among the places posting drops of 40% or more. That report said the decline followed an historic surge starting in 2020 and raised the possibility that homicide could be nearing a new historic low.

Other measures pointed the same way. The Major Cities Chiefs Association’s first-quarter 2026 violent crime survey, which covered 67 responding agencies, found homicide down 17.7% from the same quarter in 2025. In Washington, D.C., prosecutors said violent crime had hit a 30-year low.

The pattern has not been uniform, and the explanation remains contested. Researchers and commentators continue to debate how much of the decline reflects policing, policy changes, demographic shifts, or other forces. Even so, the data now show a persistent fall in killings that sits uneasily beside a public conversation that still treats crime as though it were climbing.