Overview
- A Council on Criminal Justice analysis of 40 large cities finds homicides fell 21% in 2025 from 2024 and 44% from the 2021 peak.
- Of 13 tracked offenses, 11 declined last year, nine by at least 10%, while drug offenses rose and sexual assaults were flat.
- Washington, D.C., recorded two homicides in January 2026 and went more than three weeks without a killing, compared with nine homicides in the same period a year earlier.
- The White House cites a 2025 federal takeover of D.C. policing, federal agents, National Guard deployments, more than 7,500 arrests, and 735 illegal firearms seized as evidence of progress.
- Critics and analysts argue attribution is unsettled and note that broader post‑pandemic declines predate D.C.’s intervention, with forthcoming FBI figures expected to clarify the national picture and whether rates approach century lows.