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.”…