Murders plunge 17% in America's biggest cities
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Homicides fell 17.3% across major U.S. 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 big picture: A new Major Cities Chiefs Association report found declines in all four major violent-crime categories among 66 reporting U.S. large law enforcement agencies from January through September, compared with the same period last year.
- Homicides dropped 17.3%.
- Robberies fell 13.3%.
- Rapes declined 3.8%.
- Aggravated assaults decreased 4%.
State of play: Combined, the four categories fell 6.3% — or 17,940 fewer reported offenses, an Axios analysis found.
- Fifty-two of the 66 agencies reported overall declines.
- Homicides dropped in 50 jurisdictions, increased in 14 and remained unchanged in two.
Zoom in: Some of the nation's largest cities recorded striking homicide declines.
- Memphis: Homicides plunged 36.5%, from 156 to 99.
- 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%.
The intrigue: New York City, the nation's largest city, also recorded declines across all four violent-crime categories, according to the updated MCCA figures.
- Homicides fell 19.7%, from 239 to 192, while robberies dropped 12.5%, from 11,413 to 9,990.
- Rapes declined 1.5% and aggravated assaults fell 1.9%.
- Taken together, the four categories fell 4.9% — or 2,059 fewer reported violent crimes.
Yes, but: The declines weren't universal.
- San Diego reported 45.2% more homicides, while Las Vegas recorded a 23.4% increase.
- Washington, D.C., saw homicides fall 29.9%, but robberies surged 41.1%, pushing its combined violent-crime total up 9.7%.
Between the lines: The decline spans presidential administrations. The Council on Criminal Justice dates the homicide turnaround to the second half of 2022, underscoring that falling crime predates Trump's return to office.
The caveat: The figures remain preliminary. Houston reported no data because of a records-system transition, and Tulsa recently switched crime-reporting systems, complicating year-over-year comparisons.
- MCCA corrected its New York City figures on Nov. 12, resulting in revised national totals.
This story was corrected after the Major Cities Chiefs Association updated its statistics to show a decrease (not an increase) in all four major violent-crime categories in New York City during the first nine months of 2026. Nationally, homicides declined 17.3% (not 15.2%) and the combined violent-crime declined 6.3% (not 4.9%).
