The city of Baltimore, which has often been used as a symbol in mainstream media for violent crime, hit a significant and positive milestone as its murder rate dropped significantly. The achievement under Mayor Brandon Scott comes as a number of Black-led cities have seen homicides drop, defying narratives that have been pushed about crime in these urban areas.
Baltimore has its lowest homicide rates in decades
For the first half of 2025, Baltimore has recorded the fewest homicides in half a century. Fox 45 reported that there had been 68 homicides recorded in Baltimore through June 2025, the lowest number of homicides recorded in that time frame in 50 years. By comparison, there were 20 more homicides between January and June 2024. Other violent crimes have also dropped by at least 10% from 2024, including arson, carjackings, robberies and nonfatal shootings. This drop in violent crime included a significant lull in April 2025, during which time The Baltimore Banner reported that the city recorded five homicides for the month. That is the lowest monthly homicide total since at least 2012, the earliest year for which the outlet has tracked homicide rates. Scott said that the record goes back much further, claiming that April’s five homicides are the lowest ever for the city. The potentially record-low rate of killings in April reflects a multi-year trend under Scott’s leadership. Following a spike in violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, the homicide rate in Baltimore declined in 2023 and then dropped a notable 20% in 2024.
Experts and officials credit a series of policies for bringing about the decrease in lethal violence in Baltimore. The city, working with initiatives established by the Biden administration, adopted various gun violence prevention policies, including fighting so-called “ghost guns.” Baltimore also adopted new approaches to policing, focusing on preventing violence in the areas that had been most prone to it and coupling police presence with other kinds of social services. The efforts appear to have paid off, with the overall homicide rate dropping and the city-wide distribution of lethal violence being more evenly distributed rather than concentrated in low-income and majority-Black neighborhoods.
A trend of dropping homicide rates under Black mayors
The decline in murders and other violent crimes in Baltimore is part of a larger but overlooked trend by which homicides and other violent crimes have declined in several predominantly Black and Black-led cities.
Although Chicago has still seen violent events like a recent drive-by shooting that left four dead and over a dozen people injured, the first four months of 2025 saw the murder rate in Chicago decline by 24%, including the least deadly month in 60 years. Auto thefts declined 30% during the first four months of the year, while robberies went down 36%, and carjackings dropped 54% compared to 2024. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced in a May press conference that “crime is down in Chicago, it continues to fall,” adding, “We’re gonna continue to show up, but it’s not just policing, it can’t be policing alone.”
Atlanta has seen a 31% drop in violent crime since 2021, coinciding with the term of Mayor Andre Dickens, and a 60% drop in violent crime since 2009. Dickens and Police Chief Darin Schierbaum credit the dropping crime stats to both policing efforts, including work to get guns off the streets, and to the work of community organizations that give young people alternatives to violence.
This trend appears widespread among Black-led cities.
Cleveland recorded 15 homicides through March 2025, down from 29 for the first three months of 2024 and 36 killings for the first quarters of 2022 and 2023. Homicides in Philadelphia in 2024 were the lowest in a decade and a half of what they were three years earlier, with the city having the most significant drop in gun violence of any major U.S. city. Even places with high overall murder or violent crime rates, such as Chicago or Jackson, Mississippi, saw significant drops in violent crimes. In a number of cities, leaders have adopted creative approaches to tackling crime. Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minnesota, worked with Police Chief Axel Henry to create a new police unit to investigate nonfatal shootings; the city saw only four homicides through May 2025, only one of which was a gun-related death.
These trends counter the fearmongering and narratives often painted by Republicans concerning Democratic-led cities — usually a thinly veiled reference to Black-led cities — as being overrun by violent crime. In cases like Baltimore, Chicago and others, the progress in tackling violent crime gives evidence for the benefits of more creative approaches to making cities safer.
