The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) said Thursday that murders in large American cities dropped 18 percent during the first half of 2026, putting the national homicide rate on pace for its lowest level since at least 1900, though eight cities recorded increases.
The CCJ analysis tracked 13 offenses across 36 cities, with 30 reporting homicide data. Those cities logged 215 fewer killings than in the same stretch last year. The historic-low finding depends on nationwide FBI figures expected later this year.
CCJ President and CEO Adam Gelb argued the decline crosses political and policy lines.
“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,” Gelb said.
Norfolk, Virginia, posted a 64 percent increase, San Francisco 55 percent, Dallas 30 percent, and Salt Lake City 20 percent. Austin, Texas, rose nine percent, Denver six percent, and Chicago and Charlotte, North Carolina, three percent apiece.
Several police departments disputed those figures.
A Dallas Police Department spokesperson told CBS News the department’s “official crime data does not reflect a 30 percent increase in homicides for the same reporting period.”
San Francisco police spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky said the city has recorded 16 homicides this year against 13 during the same period of 2025. The department closed last year with its lowest homicide rate in more than 70 years.
“We recognize that homicides have increased slightly this year compared to last year,” Sernoffsky said. “Even one homicide is one too many, and the SFPD will continue to make these crimes our top priority.”
The study also put Austin 74 percent above where it stood in 2019, the biggest increase of any city measured. Austin police said they have not seen a spike on that scale.
Norfolk had pushed back earlier. Chief Mark Talbot said the city’s 2025 murder rate was its lowest in 40 years, crediting added staffing and new technology for the drop. His department did not answer CBS News about the newer figures.
The report notes its data is collected shortly after each reporting period and often differs from official figures published later.
Lincoln, Nebraska, recorded six murders in the first half of last year and none at all this year. Rochester, New York, was down 76 percent and Little Rock, Arkansas, was at 61 percent.
New York City ran its own count. Police logged 122 murders through June, down from 162 a year earlier, the fewest the city has recorded in the first six months of any year on record.
Report co-author Ernesto Lopez told WTOP that research has not tied Washington’s decline to President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployment.
“Cities that didn’t see National Guard deployments saw large declines in homicide as well,” Lopez said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in February credited the earlier CCJ findings to border security and federal law enforcement, calling the numbers “what happens when a president secures the border.”
“This report is not evidence of the success or failure of any policy or practice,” Lopez and co-author Bobby Boxerman wrote.
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