The Baltimore Police Department says homicides and other major crime categories declined during the first half of 2026, according to its mid-year crime report released July 1.
The department characterized the reductions as historic. The report covers Jan. 1 through June 30, 2026, and is the latest official account from the city’s police department of crime trends during that period.
What the department reported
BPD said the declines included homicides as well as other major crime categories. The approved source material does not provide category-by-category totals, percentage changes or prior-period figures, so the scale of the reported changes cannot be quantified from the release information available for this report.
The department also said its clearance rates were above national averages. No specific clearance-rate percentages or details of the national comparison were included in the approved source packet.
What the report can show
The report provides Baltimore’s latest official measure of public-safety trends and police clearance performance for the first six months of 2026. Its findings are the department’s account of those trends.
Independent validation of all of the department’s comparisons was not located in the allocated search. The reported citywide changes also do not establish that every Baltimore neighborhood experienced the same pattern of change.
The department’s report does not identify a cause for the reductions, and the reported declines alone do not establish why they occurred. No subsequent reporting deadline, update date or next action was identified in the approved source material.
Sources
- Baltimore Police Department releases 2026 Mid-Year Crime Report and key highlights, Baltimore Police Department