Only one city in a national crime study saw a bigger homicide decline than Rochester, where killings fell 76% in the first half of 2026.
The Council on Criminal Justice found Rochester's homicide decline was among the sharpest in a 30-city sample, continuing a drop that has pushed local killings well below both pandemic-era highs and pre-pandemic levels.
Only one other city out of 30 reviewed by the independent think tank saw a greater decline.
Initial data from this year also shows a 76% decrease in local homicides compared to the first six months of 2019, which is considered a baseline for recent crime data analysis because it excludes abnormal pandemic-era spikes in violence.
Irshad Altheimer, a criminal justice professor at RIT, said the new
data provides an opportunity for city officials and community groups to pause, consider the effectiveness of certain policies and programs, and adjust priorities as needed.
Rochester's success mirrors improvements seen nationwide. The national homicide rate fell last year to 4.1 murders per 100,000 people, the lowest rate since 1956, according to the FBI.
Progress in other areas, however, is lagging. According to the CCJ report:
- Car thefts in Rochester remain 114% higher than 2019 totals. A design flaw left Kia and Hyundai models especially vulnerable to car theft in 2023. While those numbers continue to fall ― reported car thefts are down 32% so far this year ― they still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
- Rochester saw a slight increase in reported aggravated assault, with 11% more cases this year than in the first six months of 2025. Aggravated assault remains 19% higher than 2019.
- Robberies are down 21% from last year; larceny cases are down 6.5%.
Despite the steep improvements around gun violence in Rochester, Mayor Malik Evans has kept the city under a state of emergency since mid-2022. In July, he used those powers to enact a late-night gathering ban after a series of crowd-related shootings. The mayor has said he is pushing for zero shootings within city limits.
"I think we have to be really careful about blanket interventions that kind of penalize or restrict the whole community without taking into account the unique characteristics of each crime," Altheimer said. "These types of interventions are limited, so we have to think about more targeted approaches that are data-driven, that focus on the unique needs and risks posed by specific offenders committing specific types of offenses."
The CCJ report said there is no single or easy explanation for the crime trends seen in the last year. The Council on Criminal Justice will convene a two-day summit of criminology and sociology researchers in September to analyze some of the data.
— Kayla Canne covers community safety for the Democrat and Chronicle with a focus on immigration, police accountability, government surveillance and how people are impacted by violence. Follow her on Instagram @bykaylacanne. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Only one U.S. city saw a bigger homicide drop than Rochester
