Murders plunge 15% in America's biggest cities
Data: Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA); Note: Tulsa Police changed crime-reporting systems, which may affect year-over-year comparisons.; Chart: Russell Contreras/Axios Homicides fell 15.2% across major U.S.
Key points
- police jurisdictions through the first nine months of 2026, extending a retreat from pandemic-era violence that began under President Biden and continues under President Trump.
- The other side: New York City was a major outlier and reported more violent crime in all four categories, including 24.5% more homicides and 14.2% more robberies.
- Houston reported no data because of a records-system transition, and Tulsa recently transitioned to a new crime reporting system, the report notes.
The big picture: A new Major Cities Chiefs Association report found declines in all four major violent-crime categories among 66 reporting U.S.
Zoom in: Some of the nation's largest cities recorded striking homicide declines.
Additional details
- San Antonio was down 36.5%, Indianapolis down 33.6%, Philadelphia down 21.2%, Aurora, Colorado down 65.2% and Newark, New Jersey down 59.1%.
- Washington, D.C., saw homicides fall 29.9%, but robberies surged 41.1%, pushing its combined violent-crime total up 9.7%.
- large law enforcement agencies from January through September, compared with the same period last year.
- State of play: Combined, the four categories fell 4.9% — or 13,822 fewer reported offenses.
- Homicides dropped in 49 jurisdictions, increased in 15 and remained unchanged in two.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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