Three of the country’s largest cities used to brace for a summer spike in violent crime. This July, New York, Baltimore, and Chicago each posted historic lows instead, though officials in every city were careful to note that progress isn’t the same thing as a finish line.

New York City is now on pace for its safest year on record. New data released by the NYPD showed a nearly 13% decrease in violent crime across all five boroughs in July, capping off the city’s safest first seven months of the year in recorded history.

Shooting incidents dropped 21% for the month and are down 7.5% year-to-date, with 380 shooting incidents recorded through the first seven months of 2026, compared to 771 over the same stretch in 2020. Other major crime categories fell too: burglary declined 14.7% to its lowest point on record, auto theft dropped 24.6%, robbery fell 14.9%, grand larceny declined 11.8%, and felony assault dropped 6.4%. Retail theft also continued its steady decline, down 15.2% in July.

The Bronx saw the steepest overall drop in violent crime citywide. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch credited the department’s data-driven precision policing strategy, sharing that the numbers came even as the department managed an unusually demanding summer.

“This summer, the NYPD was called upon to manage an unprecedented series of major and overlapping events, including the NBA Finals, the World Cup, Sail250, and the largest Fourth of July celebration in the country,” Tisch said. “Through it all, even as the demands on this department reached historic levels, the men and women of the NYPD delivered double-digit declines in major crime and record lows in violent crime across the city.”

Not every category moved in the same direction: major crime in the transit system rose 10.9% in July, with 14 incidents largely driven by felony assaults and nonviolent grand larcenies, including a notable share of assaults on elderly transit riders.

Baltimore marked its own milestone. As of August 3, the city had recorded 60 homicides and 187 non-fatal shootings for the year, down from 81 homicides and 191 non-fatal shootings on the same date in 2025, a 25.9% drop in homicides. July itself saw just 7 homicides, the fewest of any July on record and only the second time the monthly count has landed in single digits, the first being July 2001, with 9.

“Baltimoreans know that July has historically been the most dangerous month of the year, which makes this progress all the more significant. We would not be here without the dedicated work of BPD and our law enforcement partners, MONSE, prosecutors, our community violence intervention ecosystem, and most importantly, our residents,” said Mayor Brandon Scott. He also pointed to the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a partnership between the Baltimore Police Department, the Mayor’s Office, and prosecutors that focuses resources on those at the highest risk of violence, as a key driver behind three consecutive years of historic reductions.

Baltimore police have also seized more than 1,189 firearms so far this year, including 123 ghost guns, made 743 gun arrests, and are clearing homicide cases at a rate of roughly 60% year-to-date. Carjackings are down 42%, burglaries down 16%, and robberies down 12% compared to the same point last year.

Chicago recorded 37 homicides in July, the fewest for any single July in more than 50 years and an 18% drop from the 44 recorded in July 2025. It’s also less than half the totals seen in July 2020 and July 2021, when more than 100 people were killed in each of those months.

But the city’s broader 2026 picture is more mixed: through the first seven months of the year, Chicago has recorded 250 homicides, slightly above the 244 logged over the same period last year, while shooting incidents held nearly flat at 840 versus 842, and the number of shooting victims actually rose to 1,055 from 1,039.

“One homicide or shooting is one too many,” Mayor Brandon Johnson wrote on X, thanking police officers, violence intervention workers, and victim-services advocates who worked through the summer. 2025 marked Chicago’s fourth consecutive year of declines in shootings and homicides, with the lowest per-capita homicide rate the city has seen since 1965, though officials caution that sustaining those gains will take continued investment in both policing and prevention.