When Violence Falls, Black Mayors Deserve a Fair Hearing

The progress is real in several Black-led cities, including those led by Black women. Recognizing that progress requires the same attention we demand when crime rises.

By Kenneth Braswell, CEO, Fathers Incorporated

We don’t experience public safety as a statistic. Fathers experience it when their children get home without incident. Mothers experience it when an unfamiliar number on their phone doesn’t become the call they’ve feared. Families experience it in the ordinary freedom to visit a playground, walk to school, or sit outside without calculating what might happen next. That’s what I think about when I see reports that homicides and other violent crimes are declining in American cities.

Lately, social media has been circulating a more specific story: Black mayors are leading cities where violence is falling substantially. I wanted to know if the evidence supported the celebration — a question we should ask even when a claim affirms something we’d like to believe. And after reviewing police reports, city announcements, and independent research, my answer is yes, there’s meaningful progress to recognize. 

Baltimore

Consider Baltimore under Mayor Brandon Scott. The Baltimore Police Department reported 133 homicides in 2025, compared with an adjusted 194 in 2024, a decline of approximately 31%. Nonfatal shootings fell by 24%. These were reductions in people killed and wounded, not simply improvements in how residents felt about their city. Baltimore’s progress continued into this year. In an October 1, 2026, announcement, Scott’s administration reported 83 homicides compared with 98 at the same point in 2025, a further decline of 15.3%. The city described a strategy combining targeted enforcement, prosecutors, community violence intervention, life coaching, and other services. Scott deserves recognition for leading the coordinated effort, along with the people doing the daily work that gives a public safety plan substance.

Atlanta

Here in Atlanta, the improvement also deserves attention. Under Mayor Andre Dickens, the city recorded 98 homicides in 2025, bringing the annual total below 100. The Atlanta Police Department separately reported a 7% reduction in overall crime for the year. Those measures describe different things, but both offer reasons to acknowledge progress while continuing to examine where violence persists. For those of us working with fathers and families in Atlanta, safer neighborhoods are part of the environment in which our work can take root.

Philadelphia

Any account that stops with Black men leaves out substantial leadership. In Philadelphia, Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration presided over a year in which the city recorded 222 homicides, its lowest total since 1966. The Pew Charitable Trusts reported that this represented a 17.5% decrease from 2024. Pew placed Philadelphia within the national decline, while also recognizing that the city’s progress may reflect the attention and investment of Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel. 

Los Angeles

Los Angeles offers another example. Under Mayor Karen Bass, LAPD’s annual review recorded 230 homicides in 2025, down from 284 in 2024, a reduction of about 19%. Separately, Bass’s office reported a roughly 27% decline in homicides within the neighborhoods served by the city’s Gang Reduction and Youth Development initiative. One figure describes the citywide count, while the other concerns designated intervention areas. Both warrant attention in a conversation about Black leadership and public safety.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., under Mayor Muriel Bowser, demonstrates why celebration and scrutiny must travel together. Metropolitan Police Department year-end figures showed homicides falling from 187 in 2024 to 127 in 2025, while its locally defined violent-crime total declined 29%. But the preliminary picture through October 16, 2026, was mixed. Homicides were down another 28%, compared with the corresponding period in 2025, while total reported violent crime was up 12%, driven by an increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon. 

National Trends

These Black-led cities are participating meaningfully in a much wider improvement. The Council on Criminal Justice found that homicides declined in 31 of the 35 cities supplying homicide data for its 2025 analysis. The average reported homicide rate fell 21%. 

A national decline doesn’t make local leadership irrelevant. Mayors select police leadership, propose budgets, establish priorities, convene partners, and help determine whether prevention receives sustained support. At the same time, falling crime during a mayor’s tenure doesn’t, by itself, prove which decisions caused the change. 

And when a Black mayor’s city experiences a terrible act of violence, we should resist turning the incident into a verdict on Black leadership. When that city makes measurable progress, we should be willing to examine and acknowledge it. Public accountability loses credibility when we demand ownership of every failure but treat every improvement as something that happened independently of the people governing.

We also must resist looking at data in isolation or relying on a definition of safety that’s too narrow. For example, when the Council on Criminal Justice shared its midyear 2026 analysis showing an 18% decline in the reported homicide rate across 30 cities, it also reported domestic violence incidents rose 8% (in a smaller sample tracking that offense). Fewer killings are profoundly important, but they can’t become permission to overlook violence inside homes or the experiences of danger that’s less visible.

Fatherhood Work and Public Safety

My work with Fathers Incorporated keeps bringing me back to the families behind the findings. A child needs dependable adults and a community in which those adults can safely raise that child. Fathers have responsibilities within that picture: to manage conflict, remain accountable for their conduct, seek help when needed, and model something healthier than retaliation. Institutions have responsibilities, as well. We can’t ask families to create stability while treating the conditions surrounding them as somebody else’s concern.

Family well-being is part of what public safety must ultimately serve. Police officers, outreach workers, teachers, clinicians, parents, neighborhood leaders, and young people themselves all have roles in sustaining safer communities. Mayors do valuable work when they organize those contributions around clear goals and remain willing to examine what’s working.

The next step should be to study these gains carefully, sustain efforts supported by evidence, and ask whether improvements are reaching the neighborhoods that have carried the heaviest burden. We should recognize Scott, Dickens, Parker, Bass, Bowser, and other leaders when their cities’ records warrant recognition. We should also expect transparent reporting when progress slows or particular forms of violence increase.

Black mayors don’t need us to exaggerate their accomplishments. They deserve a public conversation accurate enough to recognize them. And families deserve something more lasting than a favorable headline: the chance to build their lives with less fear, more trust, and a reasonable expectation that the people they love will come home.