Where can i find official monthly crime reports and homicide data for washington dc in 2025?
Executive summary
For official, up‑to‑date monthly crime reports and homicide data for Washington, D.C., start with the Metropolitan Police Department’s public portals: the MPD / District Crime Data at a Glance and the Crime Cards/Open Data feeds (mpdc.dc.gov and crimecards.dc.gov / opendata.dc.gov) — MPD’s year‑end 2024 figures were noted as accurate as of Jan. 1, 2025 [1] and the city’s open dataset for 2025 is available on opendata.dc.gov [2]. Federal and third‑party sources that compile or analyze those numbers — the FBI’s national reports and the Council on Criminal Justice’s mid‑year dashboards — provide comparative context and monthly series for 2018–June 2025 [3] [4] [5].
1. Where to get official monthly MPD reports — start at MPD’s own portals
The Metropolitan Police Department publishes its “District Crime Data at a Glance” and related online tools as the primary official source; that page explicitly warns the reports are preliminary and subject to reclassification and changes and noted year‑end 2024 data as accurate Jan. 1, 2025 [1]. The city also hosts Crime Cards (crimecards.dc.gov) that surface MPD’s ASAP database and a dedicated “Crime Incidents in 2025” dataset on opendata.dc.gov — both are direct feeds from MPD systems and include monthly incident detail and geographies [6] [2] [7].
2. Open data and downloadable incident files for detailed monthly and homicide tallies
If you need raw incident‑level or monthly tallies, use the open dataset “Crime Incidents in 2025” on DC’s data catalog; it contains MPD’s ASAP exports and includes geographies (ward, ANC, precinct) calculated for incidents from 2020 onward and is intended for analysis by month and type [2] [7]. Independent aggregators like CrimeDataDC repackage those files into month‑to‑date dashboards and homicide tallies [8] [9], but they are not the original official feed.
3. Federal comparators and standardized statistics — FBI and DOJ
For annual benchmarking and a standardized national comparison, consult the FBI’s Released Reported Crimes in the Nation (UCR/NIBRS) for 2024, which aggregates agency submissions nationally and is useful to compare trends though it differs in definitions and scope from MPD’s local counts [3]. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. and the Department of Justice also published a January 2025 statement saying violent crime and homicides were down markedly in 2024, with homicides down 32% compared with 2023, which is relevant context for interpreting 2025 monthly trajectories [10].
4. Independent analyses and mid‑year dashboards for month‑by‑month context
Policy groups and data journalists — e.g., the Council on Criminal Justice mid‑year 2025 report and offense dashboard — publish monthly count and rate series (including homicide half‑year averages) through June 2025, useful when you want month‑to‑month comparisons or cross‑city benchmarking [4] [5]. Analysts such as Jeff Asher have also publicly dug into MPD’s monthly reporting and cautioned about reporting lags and differences between open‑data incident feeds and finalized FBI numbers [11].
5. Watch for reporting caveats and political framing
MPD and the open datasets both warn reports are “preliminary” and can change for reclassification or unfounded cases; using MPD’s own date stamps and revision notes is critical [1] [2]. Political actors have also selectively cited slices of the data: the White House and other federal statements used MPD counts to justify interventions in 2025 while independent fact‑checks and DOJ releases pointed to 2024 and 2025 declines — check MPD’s raw monthly files against DOJ/FBI releases and independent dashboards to avoid misinterpretation [12] [10] [13].
6. Practical next steps — how to pull monthly homicide numbers for 2025
1) Download MPD’s month‑by‑month incident files from crimecards.dc.gov or the “Crime Incidents in 2025” dataset on opendata.dc.gov [6] [2]. 2) Use MPD’s “District Crime Data at a Glance” pages for immediate month‑to‑date summaries and for official caveats about revisions [1]. 3) Cross‑check against the Council on Criminal Justice offense dashboard for standardized monthly rates through June 2025 and the FBI’s annual releases for nationwide comparators [4] [3].
Limitations and final note: MPD’s public feeds are the official local source but are explicitly preliminary and can diverge from finalized FBI/NIBRS totals; federal and independent analyses provide useful corrections and context, especially for cross‑city comparisons [1] [3] [11]. Available sources do not mention any other official D.C. monthly homicide repository beyond MPD’s portals, the city open data catalog, and federal aggregators [1] [2] [3].