The beleaguered city of Baltimore, once a posterchild for crime infested American cities, has seen substantial year on year reductions in homicides, with the current 2025 rate on track for a historic low.
Through June, Baltimore has had 68 recorded homicides, which is the fewest in 50 years, said city mayor Brandon Scott.
Through June of last year by contrast, 88 had been recorded, making this year not only a drop in the short term, but a drop in the long term when looking at statistics from 2023, or even a decade before.
“Our continued progress is the direct result of the comprehensive, evidence-based public safety strategy that we have implemented in partnership with residents,” said Mayor Scott, via a press release.
There’s also been a 20% reduction in non-fatal shootings, suggesting the numbers are more than anomalies or data-driven mirages that might occur when, for example, citizens begin to change their behavior in response to crime.
“But our work is far from over. 68 lives lost to violence is 68 too many. While we acknowledge the historic lows we are experiencing, we must simultaneously acknowledge that there is much more work to do and our success makes me commit even further to doing it.”
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In 2022, when a sustained downtrend in population bottomed out around 570,000, the homicide rate was 57.9 per 100,000 people, amounting to 330 by year’s end.
The most recent census reports a city-wide population of about the same as in 2022, meaning if the homicide rate continues at current trajectory, 2025 would end with 24.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
The last year lower than that was 1977, but 2025 would still mark a safer Baltimore than the decade before ’77 as well.
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