Mike the Mad Biologist

While the only good week is one without any homicides, homicides declined this week. As of Friday 9am, D.C. has reported has only one new homicide this week, bringing the total for the year to 68*. Last year, during the same time period, we had 102 homicides, and in the surge year of 2023, there were 176 homicides during that time.

Unfortunately, non-violent crime categories trended upwards, while violent crimes pretty much leveled off. It’s still unclear if we will achieve another 33 percent drop in homicides for the third straight year–a trend that began pre-occupation, in the Biden era. Right now, we’re on pace to do so, but we will need slightly less than one homicide per week for that to happen. It’s worth noting that the first three months of the year had only twelve homicides (versus 34 in the first three months of 2025), and since then, we have had 54 homicides (versus 59 in the same time period in 2025)**.

Hoping next week gets us back to a zero homicide week.

*Three of the 71 murders reported this year actually occurred in other years (e.g., a missing persons case from 2023 turned into a homicide case this year with new evidence). Also, occasionally homicides get reclassified so the annual total can increase or decrease by one, with or without any homicides.

**As best as I can tell, this seems to be a general pattern in much of the Northeast, making me wonder if the crappy winter weather played a role. Could be wrong about the pattern or the explanation though.