Miami-Dade sees sharp drop in homicides

The big picture: Violent crime in the U.S., especially homicides, spiked during the final year of Trump's first term and during Joe Biden's first two years as president.

• Since then, they've been dropping dramatically, an Axios review of MCCA data shows.
• Overall, violent crimes — robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults — decreased by an average of 14% in the first quarter of this year, reports from police departments in 68 cities indicate.

Many cities have had significant drops in homicides so far this year.

• Dallas has seen a 44% decline. Denver (58%), Honolulu (82%), Minneapolis (54%) and Philadelphia (28%) were among the cities showing notable drops.
• The data didn't include New York City, the nation's largest city, which didn't submit crime numbers. New York releases crime stats on its own website, where it reported a 34% drop in homicides in the first quarter of 2025.

Zoom in: The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office investigates homicides in 27 of Miami-Dade's 35 municipalities and unincorporated Miami-Dade.

• MDSO handled 11 homicides between Jan. 1 and March 31, down from 18 during the same period in 2024, per MCCA data.
• The City of Miami, which has its own homicide unit, handled eight homicide cases during the 2025 period, compared to 9 during the same three-month period in 2024.

MDSO and Miami Police also reported decreases in other violent crimes, like rape, robbery and aggravated assault.