Lincoln, Nebraska recorded zero homicides in the first half of 2026. Rochester, New York cut its murder rate by 76%. Across 30 major American cities, the homicide rate dropped 18% compared to the same period last year.

That puts the country on pace for roughly 215 fewer murders this year, the lowest homicide level in over a century.

The data comes from the Council on Criminal Justice, an independent nonprofit that tracked 13 crime categories across those 30 cities. Nine of the thirteen categories showed decreases. Carjackings are down. Residential burglaries are down. Aggravated assaults are down. Two-thirds of the sampled cities posted improved homicide numbers through the first six months of the year.

The trend isn't limited to murder. The broader picture is one of sustained decline across violent and property crime categories that had exploded during the post-2020 "reimagine policing" era while Joe Biden was in charge and Democrats dominated in Congress. The same era, you'll recall, when city councils were voting to defund the police and George Soros-backed district attorneys were competing to see who could release suspects faster--even violent ones.

Funny how that works. You let cops do their jobs, you enforce the law at the border, you stop telling prosecutors that jail is a social injustice and crime goes down. It's almost like consequences matter.

Now eight cities out of the thirty did see homicide increases. And you may notice a pattern among those cities that did not show an improvement.

Norfolk, Virginia posted a 64% increase in homicides. San Francisco saw a 55% jump. So did Denver, Colorado and Austin, Texas. Guess what all of those cities have in common. Yep, they're run by liberals and have been for YEARS.

The pattern is remarkably consistent. Cities that backed their police departments, enforced existing laws, and cooperated with federal immigration enforcement are watching crime fall. Cities that clung to the defund model, resisted ICE cooperation, and treated incarceration as the real problem are the ones dragging the national average upward.

None of this is complicated. Enforce the law. Prosecute criminals. Deport violent illegal aliens. Support the officers doing the work. The results are sitting in the data — 18% fewer murders, 215 fewer bodies, and a trajectory the country hasn't seen in a hundred years.