By Colleen Cronin
Boston Herald
BOSTON — Crime is down across the city, but homicides have increased by 36% this year according to the latest statistics released by Boston police.
While the total number of crimes committed in the city is down about 2% compared to this time last year, the Boston Police Department has reported 30 homicides so far in 2025, up from 22 homicides reported during the same period in 2024 — a 36% increase.
The uptick, which could increase by 2025’s end, comes after two straight years of declining homicide numbers for the city. But officials stress this year’s numbers are still low by historic standards.
There were 37 homicides in Boston in 2023, down from 41 in 2022. The city then saw a big drop last year to just 24 homicides total in 2024, the lowest homicide number for the city since 1957.
At the time, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the the city was the safest 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,” said Cox, a Boston native who started at the department in 1989.
BPD spokesperson Sgt. Det. John Boyle told The Herald that this year’s increase should be looked at in the context of those historically low numbers; the number of homicides in 2025 is still below the city’s five-year average, which is about 36 through the same point in the year.
“As always, one homicide is too many,” he said, encouraging members of the public to reach out to the department, noting they have an anonymous tip line, with any information, no matter how small, about homicides that have occurred in the city.
The Boston Police Department released the statistics Monday and included crime information up to Nov. 23 .
Auto thefts are also up about 6% from last year, but otherwise, other types of crime are down, including rapes, burglaries, aggravated assaults, and larcenies. The biggest drop in crime compared to this time last year is for rapes and attempted rapes, which are down more than 12%.
BPD also reported that they made 39 fewer firearms arrests in 2025 so far, compared to the same period in 2024. They city also saw fewer fatal and non-fatal shooting victims. In 2025, there were 116 total shootings, a figure that compares to 120 through the same time period in 2024. Those figures are down significantly from the 5-year-average of 173, according to police statistics.
The shift in overall crime statistics in Boston gained national attention earlier this year. When Congress called upon Mayor Michelle Wu to testify to the city’s sanctuary status, she vehemently defended Boston’s safety record.
“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 said 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.”
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