NOW PLAYING
Violent crime rates are falling in major cities around the United States this year compared to 2025, continuing a steady decline since 2022. This comes after the COVID-19 pandemic saw a record-breaking spike in homicides.
The report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) released Sunday details 66 U.S. law enforcement agencies who have seen homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault drop overall compared to last year.
MCCA reported that homicide rates dropped 17.2 percent, rape 6.2 percent, robbery 16.6 percent and aggravated assault 5.7 percent during the first six months of the year.
The MCCA cautioned that the numbers are preliminary and are not final FBI crime statistics.
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) reported similar lows, citing a continued decline beginning in the second half of 2022 after peaking amid the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd.
“There is no single or easy explanation for these historic lows,” the CCJ wrote in its mid-year update, but listed changes in criminal justice operations and strategies, technological advances and broad shifts in society and culture as possible options.
The shift in technology has been significantly documented as the Department of Homeland Security began a buildout to track migrants and U.S. citizens.
ICE officers are already using several facial recognition technologies, including the Mobile Fortify app, which can capture facial images, contactless fingerprints and photos of identity documents to determine whether they are citizens.
The rollout of Flock cameras has also begun. The solar-powered license plate readers collect and record data into a database that lets partner agencies search license plate numbers, identifying features like bumper stickers, the make and model of cars and more.
These technology rollouts have received pushback from Democratic lawmakers over privacy concerns.
“It raises serious questions about how the Trump administration developed and tested this technology, how often officers are using it, and what happens to the data once it is collected,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a press conference in February.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Ed Markey George FloydCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore State Watch News
See All
Campaign Katie Hobbs taps former Republican mayor as running mate by Caroline Vakil 4 hours ago Campaign / 4 hours ago 
