Baltimore police report 23% drop in homicides during first half of 2026

Baltimore recorded 50 homicides through July 1, 2026, down from 65 during the comparable period in 2025, according to a midyear report from the Baltimore Police Department.

BPD described the change as a 23% year-over-year decline. The figures cover the first half of 2026 and should not be treated as a full-year result or a complete measure of safety across every Baltimore neighborhood.

What BPD reported

The department reported 150 nonfatal shootings through July 1, compared with 165 during the comparable period last year. CBS Baltimore, using data supplied by the department, reported 156 nonfatal shootings and said the figure was four below the comparable 2025 total. The two published accounts therefore differ on the current nonfatal-shooting count; this article uses the figure in BPD’s official release.

BPD also reported a 60% homicide clearance rate and a 54% nonfatal-shooting clearance rate. Those are department-reported measures and are not presented as independently audited findings.

The department said its Warrant Apprehension Task Force made 1,006 arrests through the first half of 2026, an increase of 146 from the comparable period in 2025.

Independent context

CBS Baltimore described the 50-homicide total as the fewest recorded in Baltimore through the first six months of a year. The outlet also reported the department’s figures for clearance rates and nonfatal shootings.

BPD Commissioner Richard Worley and Mayor Brandon Scott credited department personnel and community partnerships while saying public-safety work would continue. Those comments describe the officials’ interpretation of the results; the figures alone do not establish that any particular policing, prosecution, community-intervention or staffing strategy caused the decline.

Why the data require context

BPD’s open-data documentation warns that public crime reporting was affected by a records-management-system transition. The department began a significant upgrade in May 2020, and BPD says Part 1 crime incident data posted through Baltimore’s open-data system were affected beginning in May 2021.

The warning does not by itself invalidate the midyear report. It does mean that residents, reporters and researchers should take care when comparing publicly posted incident data across years. BPD says the department and Baltimore City are working with the system vendor to address the reporting problems.

What Baltimore residents should take from the report

The reported decline concerns homicides and selected major-crime measures during a specific first-half period. It does not show that every neighborhood experienced the same change, and it does not explain why violence changed. It also says nothing conclusive about crime categories or trends not included in the midyear figures.

The report covers only January 1 through July 1, 2026. Baltimore’s second-half totals will determine whether the midyear decline develops into a full-year trend, while public figures may be revised or clarified, including the discrepancy in the nonfatal-shooting count.

Sources

• Baltimore Police Department 2026 Mid-Year Crime Report
• CBS Baltimore: Baltimore homicides reach historic low for first half of 2026