A new report shows that violent crime dropped in many of America’s largest cities during the first half of 2026, with the number of homicides falling more than 17 percent.
A Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, which gathered data from 66 of the largest cities in the United States, was released on Aug. 5.
It showed that multiple categories of violent crime decreased from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025.
The number of homicides dropped by 17.2 percent during the first half of 2026, and the number of robberies fell by 16.6 percent, according to the Aug. 5 report.
Additionally, the number of rapes decreased by 6.2 percent, and aggravated assaults dropped by 5.7 percent.
The combined totals for the four categories in the cities included in the survey represented a decrease of about 8.3 percent in violent crime, with just over 14,200 fewer violent crimes.
The data shared by the Major Cities Chiefs Association showed that homicides dropped by 43.9 percent in Washington; 43.7 percent in Memphis, Tennessee; 64.7 percent in Newark, New Jersey; 63.6 percent in Raleigh, North Carolina; 52.4 percent in Boston, Massachusetts; and 60 percent in Arlington, Texas.
The number of homicides also decreased by 60 percent in Baltimore County, Maryland; 58.8 percent in Aurora, Colorado; 50 percent in Miami, Florida; and 58.8 percent in Suffolk County, New York.
“The declines are significant, and I believe reflect the sustained efforts of MCCA member agencies and their partners to address violent crime through targeted enforcement, intelligence-led strategies, and community engagement,” she said.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association noted that the statistics included in the report were based on preliminary data, not on a final report from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System.
The report came after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard last year to multiple cities across the United States, including Washington, in an effort to reduce crime.
The White House credited the drop in violent crime to the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime.
“President Trump promised to make America safe again, and the data proves he has done just that,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told The Epoch Times on Aug. 11.
She added that Trump would “always stand with our law enforcement officers and deliver safer American neighborhoods.”
A report released by the Council on Criminal Justice in July found that homicides were down 18 percent in 30 reporting cities during the first half of 2026 compared to the same period of 2025.
“Murder and other crime rates are falling across the map, in cities with different political leadership, housing and economic conditions, policing and prosecution strategies, violence reduction models, and levels of federal enforcement activity,” Council on Criminal Justice President Adam Gelb said.
“Local policies and programs surely matter, but the striking consistency of the decline suggests that macro-level forces are exerting enormous influence as well.”
The Council on Criminal Justice reported that homicides were down 31 percent in the first half of 2026 compared to the first half of 2019 after increasing to 39 percent higher in 2022.
The think tank reported that aggravated assaults and assaults with firearms also dropped after increasing during the final year of Trump’s first administration and the early years of former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The think tank said that if the drop was confirmed by the FBI’s final statistics, it would represent the largest single-year percentage drop for homicides and would be the lowest homicide rate in at least 126 years.
The White House attributed the drop in violent crime in many of America’s largest cities to the “Trump effect.”
“The results are especially striking in Democrat-run cities where the Trump administration has aggressively surged federal resources and National Guard support after years of soft-on-crime failure,” the White House said on Aug. 11.
The White House said federal support for policing and coordination with local agencies have increased and policies aimed at deterring crime have been advanced under Trump’s administration.
It added that crime has also been reduced as a result of the administration’s border security policies.
However, some crime experts have pushed back on the White House’s comments, noting that the impact of the National Guard deployment to major cities in the United States, particularly Washington, was difficult to gauge.
“Crime statistics are not a good measure—they have been going down since well before the deployment, and there is nothing to indicate the Guard did anything during their presence that was directed toward crime,” Darrel Stephens, a policing expert with 50 years of experience, previously told The Epoch Times.
Factcheck.org also reported in June 2025 that FBI data and other crime statistics showed that crime began to spike in 2020 and then started to drop after 2022, before Trump was elected to his second term in 2024.
Last month, the Center for American Progress released an analysis of the impact Trump’s National Guard deployments had on crime.
The analysis found that the deployment of guardsmen had “no measurable effect on violent crime trends.”
On Aug. 10, Chandler Hall, associate director for public safety at the Center for American Progress, reiterated the think tank’s analysis that violent crime was already decreasing in major cities before the National Guard deployments.
“What we find is that across multiple cities, multiple datasets, and multiple time windows, we find no effect that violent crime actually did change post the National Guard deployment in any of the cities,” he said.
In response to Hall’s comments, Trump said the think tank’s report was “just another Radical Left SCAM” and indicated that he was going to file a lawsuit against the organization.
“Crime is way down since I took Office, and they know it. Liars, at this level, must be held accountable!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Addressing the president’s lawsuit threat, Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, said Tuesday that the think tank would “not be intimidated.”
“The Center for American Progress stands firmly behind its research and its staff,” Tanden said.
In Aug. 2025, Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington. At the time, he said the nation’s capital was “under siege from violent crime” and that the local government had “lost control of public order and safety.”
The Pentagon confirmed last month that the mission for which National Guard troops were deployed in Washington would continue until Jan. 20, 2029, or until terminated by the president.
In addition to deploying the National Guard to Washington, Trump deployed the National Guard to Memphis, Los Angeles, and New Orleans in 2025 to address crime and illegal immigration.
Trump also attempted to deploy the National Guard to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, last fall before facing legal challenges.
A district judge blocked Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland in November 2025.
Following the rulings, Trump announced the withdrawal of National Guard troops from Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland on Dec. 31, 2025.
