Which sources and dashboards provide daily-updated, neighborhood-level homicide counts for Washington, D.C.?
Executive summary
Official, daily-updated homicide counts for Washington, D.C., at neighborhood resolution are available from the Metropolitan Police Department’s public dashboard and the city’s open-data portal, while independent projects and aggregators offer neighborhood-cluster or ward-level views that update frequently; MPD data underpins federal summaries that showed violent crime fell sharply in 2024 (violent crime down 35%, homicides down 32% per U.S. Attorney citing MPD data) [1]. Independent sites like CrimeDataDC compile neighborhood-cluster and ward/ANC breakdowns and publish rolling totals and heat maps updated through late 2025 [2] [3]. The DC open-data crime incidents dataset provides geocoded records with Ward, ANC, Neighborhood Cluster and census geographies calculated and updated for each incident [4].
1. Official city sources: MPD dashboard and District “Daily Crime” page
The Metropolitan Police Department and the District government publish daily or near‑daily tallies and comparisons: the District’s “District Crime Data at a Glance / Daily Crime” page posts year‑to‑date comparisons and recent update dates (example: “As of November 26, 2025”) and is the canonical city summary used by officials [5]. Federal statements about year‑over‑year declines in violent crime link back to MPD’s data as the underlying source [1].
2. Geocoded incident data: DC Open Data’s “Crime Incidents” dataset
For neighborhood‑level counts derived from individual incidents, the DC open-data portal publishes the “Crime Incidents in 2025” dataset with geographies (Ward, ANC, SMD, Neighborhood Cluster, voting precinct, census tract, block group) calculated for each record starting January 1, 2020, and updated continuously; that lets analysts aggregate daily incident records up to the neighborhood unit they prefer [4].
3. Independent aggregator: CrimeDataDC (dashboards, ward/ANC/neighborhood breakdowns)
CrimeDataDC is an independent site that compiles MPD/open‑data records into dashboards and maps labeled by Ward, ANC and “Neighborhood Cluster,” with homicide totals by month and year and heat maps through 2025; it shows neighborhood-level summaries (e.g., by Ward and cluster) and reports daily/ongoing counts (examples noted through Nov. 18–25, 2025) [2] [3]. Because it repackages official incident data into neighborhood views, it’s useful for ready-made neighborhood maps and trend charts [3].
4. National and policy‑oriented dashboards that cite MPD/Open Data
Policy briefs and national dashboards, such as the Council on Criminal Justice’s Offense Dashboard and U.S. Attorney statements, use MPD or open‑data totals to compare homicide trends over time and across cities; the U.S. Attorney’s office released a breakdown asserting a 35% drop in violent crime in 2024 with homicides down 32%, explicitly citing MPD data [1] [6]. These sources generally operate at city or ward levels rather than fine‑grain street‑block maps, but they rely on the same incident feeds that allow neighborhood aggregation [1] [6].
5. How “neighborhood” is defined — official vs. practical boundaries
A key caveat: the District has no single official set of neighborhood boundaries; open‑data computes many geographies (Neighborhood Cluster, Ward, ANC, census tracts) to permit multiple neighborhood definitions, and independent sites often use the “Neighborhood Cluster” designations for mapping [4] [2]. Users should pick the geography that matches their reporting need and note that different dashboards may present the same incidents under different neighborhood labels [4] [2].
6. Discrepancies, interpretation and political context
Public figures and federal statements have amplified city homicide trends — for example, the White House and other actors cited near‑100 homicide totals in 2025 while other outlets and MPD reporting showed year‑over‑year declines; reviewers such as Snopes and local coverage have examined definitions and data framing differences, noting that changes in how agencies define “violent crime” or the time frame used can affect interpretations [7] [8] [9]. The U.S. Attorney’s 2025 claim of a 30‑year low in violent crime rests on MPD data aggregated for the period cited, but independent reviewers highlight that different definitions and reporting windows can yield differing headlines [1] [8].
7. Practical recommendation for users seeking daily, neighborhood homicide counts
Start with the MPD/District “Daily Crime” page for official tallies and the DC open‑data “Crime Incidents” dataset for raw, geocoded incident records you can aggregate to Ward/ANC/Neighborhood Cluster yourself [5] [4]. Use CrimeDataDC if you want ready‑made neighborhood/cluster dashboards and heat maps derived from those incident feeds [2] [3]. Cross‑check totals against MPD releases and independent analyses (e.g., Council on Criminal Justice, U.S. Attorney briefings) to understand broader trend claims and avoid relying on a single framing [6] [1].
Limitations: available sources do not mention a single, universally accepted “neighborhood” boundary for D.C.; they instead provide multiple geographies [4] [2]. Also, political actors and national outlets have used the same underlying counts to reach competing narratives about whether crime is “out of control” or at multi‑decade lows, so users should cite the specific dataset and geography used when quoting neighborhood homicide counts [7] [1] [8].