Crime is down throughout town, however homicides have elevated by 36% this 12 months in accordance with the newest statistics launched by Boston police.
Whereas the whole variety of crimes dedicated within the metropolis is down about 2% in comparison with this time final 12 months, the Boston Police Division has reported 30 homicides to date in 2025, up from 22 homicides reported throughout the identical interval in 2024 — a 36% improve.
The uptick, which might improve by 2025’s finish, comes after two straight years of declining murder numbers for town. However officers stress this 12 months’s numbers are nonetheless low by historic requirements.
There have been 37 homicides in Boston in 2023, down from 41 in 2022. Town then noticed a giant drop final 12 months to simply 24 homicides whole in 2024, the bottom murder quantity for town since 1957.
On the time, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox mentioned the town was the most secure he’d ever seen it.
“In my entire time that I’ve been a police officer, going back since when I came on, the city has never been safer, period, when it comes to crime, particularly violent crime, and it could go back to before I was born in the city,” mentioned Cox, a Boston native who began on the division in 1989.
BPD spokesperson Sgt. Det. John Boyle advised The Herald that this 12 months’s improve needs to be checked out within the context of these traditionally low numbers; the variety of homicides in 2025 continues to be under town’s five-year common, which is about 36 by the identical level within the 12 months.
“As always, one homicide is too many,” he mentioned, encouraging members of the general public to succeed in out to the division, noting they’ve an nameless tip line, with any info, irrespective of how small, about homicides which have occurred within the metropolis.
The Boston Police Division launched the statistics Monday and included crime info as much as Nov. 23.
Auto thefts are additionally up about 6% from final 12 months, however in any other case, different varieties of crime are down, together with rapes, burglaries, aggravated assaults, and larcenies. The largest drop in crime in comparison with this time final 12 months is for rapes and tried rapes, that are down greater than 12%.
BPD additionally reported that they made 39 fewer firearms arrests in 2025 to date, in comparison with the identical interval in 2024. They metropolis additionally noticed fewer deadly and non-fatal capturing victims. In 2025, there have been 116 whole shootings, a determine that compares to 120 by the identical time interval in 2024. These figures are down considerably from the 5-year-average of 173, in accordance with police statistics.
The shift in total crime statistics in Boston gained nationwide consideration earlier this 12 months. When Congress referred to as upon Mayor Michelle Wu to testify to town’s sanctuary standing, she vehemently defended Boston’s security file.
“I think all of our residents know what is happening here in the city, that the reality of our day-to-day lives is that Boston is an incredibly safe community,” Wu mentioned in October. “We are the safest major city by the numbers, and we work hard to maintain that and to keep pushing the standards higher every day.”
