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By Jordan King
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President Donald Trump has said multiple cities could face federal action to deal with their violent crime, after he declared a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. Newsweek has produced a map showing homicide rates in cities across the country.
Baltimore and Chicago—both mentioned by Trump as possible targets—feature in the map as cities with the second and tenth highest homicide rates, respectively, while Washington D.C. comes in at 19th. The data, compiled by the civil rights group Freedom for All Americans, does not present a complete and current nationwide picture, as not all cities have compiled complete figures for 2024.
Why It Matters
Homicide rates shape policy debates over policing, federal intervention and community investment, especially when presidential action and local officials clash over the meaning of the numbers.
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Crime levels in cities are making headlines in the wake of Trump's concerns about Washington, D.C., on Monday, when he invoked emergency powers to place the city's police department under federal control and deploy around 800 National Guard troops.
What To Know
The 10 cities with the highest homicide rates, according to Freedom for All Americans' 2024 data, are:
- St. Louis, Missouri (69.4 per 100,000 people)
- Baltimore, Maryland (51.1 per 100,000 people)
- New Orleans, Louisiana (40.6 per 100,000 people)
- Detroit, Michigan (39.7 per 100,000 people)
- Cleveland, Ohio (33.7 per 100,000 people)
- Las Vegas, Nevada (31.4 per 100,000 people)
- Kansas City, Missouri (31.2 per 100,000 people)
- Memphis, Tennessee (27.1 per 100,000 people)
- Newark, New Jersey (25.6 per 100,000 people)
- Chicago, Illinois (24.0 per 100,000 people)
The group compiled data from multiple sources, including AreaVibes, NeighborhoodScout, city police reports and public safety databases.
A spokesperson for Detroit's mayor told Newsweek the city had this year recorded "the fewest homicides, shootings, and carjackings than it has in more than 50 years."
The City of New Orleans told Newsweek: "Respectfully your research should show that the City of New Orleans through the successful work of the dedicated women and men of the New Orleans Police Department continues to have major reductions in crime using constitutional policing practices. These successful crime reduction numbers for the city has been reported by FBI Data reports and other crime reporting organizations."
Newsweek also reached out to the mayoral offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore and Cleveland via email for comment.
Washington, D.C., comes in at 19th on the Freedom for All Americans list, with a murder rate of 17.0 per 100,000 people. Violent crime in the capital hit a 30-year low in 2024, the district's U.S. Attorney's Office said in January, citing police data.
District Council member Charles Allen and District Attorney General Brian Schwalb both cited this statistic in their criticism of the president's federal intervention in the capital, with Allen calling Trump's actions a "dangerous abuse of power."
Mike A. Males, a senior researcher at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, told Newsweek that urban crime was down across the country.
"D.C. has a high rate because it is the only district wholly comprised of a city, but trends for all states mostly are down," he said.
Analysts at the Council on Criminal Justice reported year-end 2024 declines in homicides across a set of 40 cities, noting a 16 percent drop in homicides overall.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump said at a press conference on Monday: "We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there."
"They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this."
Detroit's mayoral office told Newsweek: "In 2025, Detroit is seeing the fewest homicides, shootings, and carjackings it has in more than 50 years. A major part of that success is the excellent partnership we have with US Atty Jerome Gorgon and the other federal agencies. This partnership is simple and effective: DPD does the policing and the feds have strongly increased support for federal prosecution. We appreciate the partnership we have today and are aware of no reason either side would want to change it."
Washington D.C. District Attorney General Brian Schwalb responded to Trump's move in a post on X: "The Administration's actions are unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.
"There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia. Violent crime in DC reached historic 30-year lows last year, and is down another 26% so far this year.
"We are considering all of our options and will do what is necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents."
What Happens Next
Some jurisdictions reported declines in homicide in 2024 and early 2025, but national and local trends vary by city and by the data source used.
The Council on Criminal Justice and the FBI have both signaled overall declines in violent crime through 2024. Monitoring will continue to see if this pattern continues.
Update 8/13/25, 12:53 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the City of New Orleans.
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