DETROIT – In a clear sign of continued improvements in public safety in a city once known decades ago as the “crime capital” of the United States, 2025 saw Detroit record its lowest number of homicides since 1964, according to Police Chief Todd Bettison.

The city recorded 165 homicides last year, a 19 percent decline from the previous year. It marks the lowest total since 1964, when 125 homicides were reported.

Homicides were down 35 percent compared with 2023, when the city recorded 252 killings, followed by 203 in 2024.

Based on the latest population estimates, Detroit’s homicide rate stood at 26 killings per 100,000 residents in 2025 — the lowest rate since 1968. This compares with a rate of 31 per 100,000 residents in 2024, according to the data.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Bettison said the goal is to make Detroit “the safest large city in America.

“One homicide, one assault, or one carjacking — as we always say — is one too many,” he added.

To achieve that goal, Bettison credited extensive partnerships with federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies, along with community-based violence-intervention groups, as the driving force behind Detroit’s declining crime rates.

“Partnerships are working,” Bettison said, noting that in the new year, “we will double down on our efforts, under the leadership of our new mayor, Mary Sheffield, to continue investing in prevention, enforcement, technology, everything.”

Sheffield, for her part, reaffirmed her commitment to making public safety a top priority of her administration and said she would continue building on successful initiatives already in place.

Justifiable homicides are not included in the city’s homicide statistics. Bettison explained that justifiable homicide includes the killing of a criminal by a police officer in the line of duty or a killing in self-defense. Seventeen such cases were recorded last year.

According to Detroit police data, the city recorded 31 justifiable homicides in 2023 and 23 in 2024.

In addition to the six-decade low in homicides, officials said overall violent crime and property crime declined by 10 percent in 2025 compared with the previous year. Robberies dropped to 953 cases, down from 1,209 in 2024, while car thefts declined to 6,391 cases in 2025 from 8,331 the year before.

Other crimes also fell sharply. Non-fatal shooting incidents dropped to 447 cases, compared with 603 in 2024 and 1,176 in 2020. Carjackings were nearly cut in half, falling to 77 incidents in 2025, down from 142 in 2024.

Nationally, estimates point to a 20 percent decline in homicides in 2025 — the largest annual drop on record — with the lowest number of killings nationwide since 1960.

Detroit mirrors these national trends, as cities across the country report declining violence, in some cases at levels not seen for decades, according to experts. Chicago recorded its lowest homicide total in 60 years, while Philadelphia reported its lowest homicide rates since the 1960s. In Baltimore, homicides fell by nearly 60 percent over five years, according to The Washington Post.