After years of elevated violent crime and death in America's Democrat-run cities, homicides have declined in the first nine months of 2024 in some, Axios reported Tuesday.
President-elect Donald Trump has campaigned in three presidential elections cycles on law and order, reducing violent crime, and making America safe again, but Axios revealed data that highlights – after early poor numbers during President Joe Biden's administration – a declining rate of homicides now.
Homicide rates have declined by more than more than 40% in some cities, Axios reported.
Trump has said American cities are deadlier places than the world's war zones – a claim based on total deaths in densely populated areas and not rates of death per capita.
Trump maintains on his legal immigration platform that permitting unvetted migrants to come into the U.S. through the southern border during the Biden administration has made Americans less safe in U.S. cities.
Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance were debated with one-sided fact checks by ABC and CBS moderators on crime and illegal immigration in the one presidential and one vice presidential debate.
And Trump and Vance fought back against the ideological representation of crime data and immigration loopholes.
Major Cities Chiefs Association data from 69 law enforcement agencies show an 18% drop in 2024 homicides in the first nine months, Axios reported.
The bluest of America's areas, including the ones Trump frequently rebukes as crime-ridden Democrat-run strangleholds like Boston; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Montgomery County, Maryland; and Jacksonville, Florida — have seen a 40% decrease in the rate of homicides from the deadliest of the Biden administration days, Axios found in the data.
Seeing 30% drops in homicide rates are Cleveland; the border town of El Paso, Texas; New Orleans; Orlando, Florida; Salt Lake City, and Washington, D.C., according to the report.
Trump has made Aurora, Colorado, a focus of his campaign call for American safety – noting Venezuelan migrant gang activity amid Biden's restoration of border catch-and-release policies – and it has seen a 10% decrease in homicides off the Biden-era highs.
Notably, the largest city in America, New York City – one very close to Trump's heart as his former home – was not included in the MCCA data. Trump has rebuked incomplete data as being politicized in a presidential election year to paint a picture of declining violent crime rates.
The other largest cities in America just behind New York City have seen slight declines in homicides off Biden highs, according to Axios:
- New York City: no data
- Los Angeles: 9% decline in homicides.
- Chicago: 8% decline
- Houston: 13% decline