Norfolk homicides rose 64% in first half of 2026, CCJ report says

Norfolk had a reported 64% increase in homicides during the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to a July analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice.

The January-through-June increase was the largest among the 30 cities included in the council’s homicide comparison. Norfolk was also one of four cities whose homicide rate in the first half of 2026 was higher than in the comparable period of 2019.

Norfolk stood out as homicides declined overall

The Norfolk result contrasts with the broader direction in the Council on Criminal Justice sample. Across the 30 cities providing homicide data, the reported homicide rate was 18% lower in January through June 2026 than in the first half of 2025, representing 215 fewer homicides.

Homicides fell in 21 of those 30 cities. Norfolk had the largest year-over-year increase, while Austin had the largest increase compared with the first half of 2019. Austin, Minneapolis, Norfolk and Pittsburgh were the four cities with higher January-through-June 2026 homicide rates than in the same period in 2019.

The comparison is not a national count and does not represent every U.S. city. The broader CCJ report examines a sample of large cities that publish timely monthly crime data; the number of cities varies by offense.

Norfolk records provide the local check

The City of Norfolk’s Police Incident Reports dataset is the primary local record for reviewing the result. The dataset is provided by the Norfolk Police Department, owned by the City of Norfolk and searchable by offense and date of occurrence. Its listing says it was last updated July 28, 2026.

The relevant comparison covers incidents with occurrence dates from Jan. 1 through June 30, 2026, and the matching Jan. 1 through June 30, 2025, period. The local dataset should be understood as a record of police incidents and offense classifications, not as a final court finding or an immutable annual homicide total.

That distinction matters because incident records may be corrected, updated or reclassified as investigations continue. The Council on Criminal Justice says its figures were collected shortly after the end of the study period, are preliminary and may differ from later figures published by individual police departments, the FBI or other organizations.

Why the 64% figure is not a full-year forecast

The council converted reported offense counts into rates for its city comparisons and notes that offense classifications vary somewhat among jurisdictions. Its homicide definition is based on murder or non-negligent manslaughter reported to police.

As a result, the 64% figure describes a midyear comparison, not Norfolk’s final 2026 homicide total. It does not establish why homicides increased, whether the increase will continue or whether the city’s full-year count will exceed its 2025 total.

Norfolk Police reported 26 homicides for all of 2025 and described that figure as the lowest number reported in the city in decades. That year-end figure provides baseline context, but it is not the same measure as the Council on Criminal Justice’s January-through-June comparison.

What residents should watch next

The next useful checkpoint is continued review of Norfolk Police records as incident data mature. Later police updates and finalized state or federal crime statistics may revise the preliminary midyear picture.

For now, the available evidence identifies a serious increase in reported homicides during the first half of 2026 and shows that Norfolk was an outlier in the council’s 30-city homicide sample. The data alone do not identify a cause or predict what the rest of the year will bring.

Sources

• Council on Criminal Justice midyear 2026 crime report
• Norfolk Police Incident Reports dataset
• Norfolk Police 2025 year-end crime update
• Associated Press report on 2026 homicide trends