Detroit closed 2025 with a historic reduction in violent crime reports, marking major milestones in homicides, nonfatal shootings, and carjackings.
Mayor Mary Sheffield joined Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison and a coalition of local, state, federal, and community partners to announce the preliminary year-end numbers.
The city issued preliminary data showing Detroit ended the year with 165 criminal homicides, down 19% from 2024 and 35% from 2023. Compared to 2024, nonfatal shootings fell 26% to 447, while carjackings dropped 46% to 77, which the city said is an 84% reduction since 2015.
All major crime categories, including sexual assault, auto theft, and robbery, also saw notable decreases, according to Detroit officials.
“Nothing we do as a city is more important than keeping our residents safe,” said Sheffield. “Safer communities and historic reductions in crime like this don’t happen without effective strategies, great partnerships and the political will to fund these efforts. All of those things exist in Detroit and will continue to in the Sheffield administration.”
The mayor also announced plans to create a new Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety within her first 100 days. Sheffield said the office will coordinate violence prevention programs, work with community partners, and address the root causes of crime before conflicts escalate.
"The goal ... is prevention,” she said. "That means addressing the root causes that lead people towards violence and helping more residents choose a different path."
Bettison praised the work of the Detroit Police Department and its partners, crediting them — and in particular the city's community violence intervention groups — for the historically low in crime rates in the city.
"You can see the trend line where we're continually to trend down," he said. "Our officers, this group, the community, everyone, CVI working collectively, the judges courts working to make the city a safer place."
Detroit’s seven community violence intervention groups have expanded to cover more areas of the city under recent municipal contracts, with officials saying they use data-driven approaches to prevent conflicts before they escalate.
Zoe Kennedy of Force Detroit, one of the violence intervention groups, also praised local efforts: “Those who have decided not to perpetuate violence … have decided to change the narrative.”
Bettison said most homicides in Detroit are not gang or drug related, but arise from spontaneous conflicts. He said prevention is key to keeping homicides down in the city.
"Being able to really zero in and come up with, I would say, some way to intercept the conflict before it results to violence earlier” is the aim of those intervention efforts, he said.
