DC Homicides Down 46 Percent in 2026 as Crime Keeps Dropping in Nation’s Capital

The number of homicides in Washington so far this year has dropped by 46 percent compared with the same period last year, according to city data.

The statistics compare crime data from Jan. 1–June 10, 2026, to the same time period in 2025. There have been 39 homicides in 2026, down from 72 between Jan. 1 and June 10, 2025.

Overall, there has been a broad decline in the major crime categories, except for assault with a dangerous weapon, which has increased by 44 percent from 2025, to 545 incidents from 381.

Violent crime in the nation’s capital is down by 3 percent from last year, and property crime has fallen by 25 percent.

Some of the biggest reductions in crime occurred in the categories of motor vehicle theft and theft from auto.

Motor vehicle thefts dropped by 56 percent, to 957 in 2026 from 2,187 in 2025.

Thefts from auto were reduced to 1,547 in 2026 from 2,546 in 2025, a 39 percent drop.

The number of robberies also dropped to 522 in 2026 from 680 in 2025, a 23 percent drop.

President Donald Trump highlighted the reduction in crime during a news conference on June 10.

He said 5,000 criminals have been taken off the streets in the city, noting that 2 percent of the people were committing 91 percent of the crimes.

Trump, who deployed the National Guard to Washington in August 2025, said the Guard has worked with local law enforcement to make the capital “a very safe city.”

“Everyone’s going out to eat now,” he said. “Restaurants were all closed, they were all closing, the few that were open were closing. And now you can’t get a restaurant in Washington. Everyone wants to have a restaurant.”

A study released in May by Washington think tank the Niskanen Center, examining crime trends in the capital, found that crime fell sharply after a 2023 surge even as the city’s police force shrank to its smallest size in decades.

The study also found that the August 2025 deployment of roughly 2,000 National Guard members was associated with a 24 percent drop in opportunistic property crimes but had no measurable effect on violent crime. Researchers said targeted, data-driven policing strategies would likely produce greater public safety benefits at a lower cost than large-scale National Guard deployments.

In December, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform alleged that then-Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith had manipulated crime statistics. The committee alleged that Smith created an “ecosystem of fear, retaliation, and toxicity” with commanders and would humiliate officers who did not report low crime numbers.

According to the committee report, Smith was accused of trying to get her subordinates to give certain crimes a lower classification, which would have excluded them from the department’s daily crime report.