CMPD report shows Charlotte crime down 9% in 2025 compared to previous year
Overall crime in Charlotte decreased 9% in 2025 compared to 2024, including a 21% decrease in violent crime and a 6% decrease in property crime, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s annual report.
“These results are not just numbers — they are outcomes of targeted strategies,” Police Chief Estella Patterson said at a news conference on Thursday. “The work represents intentionality and real strategies in action.”
There was also a 13% decline in the number of homicides in 2025, according to data shared at the news conference, where police supervisors and Patterson presented CMPD’s annual end-of-year crime stats report and answered questions from reporters.
Patterson said there were 96 homicides in 2025 in Charlotte, down from 110 in 2024.
CMPD data available on its website showed there were 97 homicides in 2025.
The tally does not include homicides police and prosecutors deemed “justified,” of which there were eight.
“As we continue building on this momentum from 2025, we already have additional operations in development,” Patterson said. “It’s important that we look to what’s driving these results that we are having, the successes we are seeing.”
Patterson became the city’s first female police chief in December.
