This week, the Trump administration tried to take credit for crime dropping in cities across the country.
In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security tried to tout numbers it not too long ago denied even existed, stating, “HOMICIDES DOWN 17% across 30 U.S. cities under President Trump and Secretary Noem.”
The DHS is right that in city after city led by Democratic mayors, violent crime is dropping, with some cities even hitting historic lows. But it is egregiously misleading and brazenly hypocritical of the White House to try to take credit. The truth is that it’s all happening in spite of Donald Trump, not because of him.
Democratic mayors have stepped up to demonstrate what real leadership looks like.
Instead of working to reduce crime, Trump and Republicans in Washington have pushed unprecedented cuts to critical government and community-based public safety programs our cities rely on. They have told violence prevention leaders their work isn’t an efficient use of resources and that gun violence prevention is a waste. They have forced our communities to live in fear, repeatedly detained innocent people and thrown the rule of law out the window.
Simply put, they have made our communities less safe.
But Democratic mayors have stepped up to demonstrate what real leadership looks like, to continue to move our cities forward. We are managing what we can control and doubling down on programs and strategies that work — the majority of which were designed by and for the communities we serve. And as a result of this leadership, across the country, Democratic-led cities are seeing major reductions in violent crime and homicides.
Baltimore’s first-ever Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan brought together law enforcement, community violence interrupters and local organizations to drive down violence. Today, the city’s homicide rate is at its lowest in 50 years.
On the other side of the country, due to the work of community violence interventionists in Los Angeles, the city is on pace for the lowest homicide total in 60 years.
We’ve seen the same in Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Nashville, New Orleans, Newark and more. In fact, of the 70 largest Democratic-led cities in the country, over half of them have seen violent crime decrease so far this year. The same is true for smaller cities like Birmingham, Hartford and Little Rock.
And we’ve seen the same trend in my hometown of Cleveland. Our Raising Investment in Safety for Everyone Initiative has helped contribute to significant reductions in violent crime across the city, with homicides declining by 26%.
Democratic mayors are using every tool available to make our neighborhoods safer, and it’s working.
This progress isn’t by accident. It’s the result of intentional leadership and sustained investments in prevention, intervention, community partnerships, smart technology and community trust. In Cleveland, we’ve expanded our technology, such as a camera sharing program and the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, across all five neighborhood police districts to help combat gun violence. We’ve also strengthened regional law enforcement partnerships and grown our police recruitment efforts with changes like increased pay and a streamlined application process.
Democratic mayors are using every tool available to make our neighborhoods safer, and it’s working. Across the country, we’re proving that investing in people and places produces results. And we’ve made this progress without any help from Donald Trump. So let’s be clear about who is fighting for safer communities — and who is standing in the way. Cities led by Democratic mayors, not this president, have made historic investments in public safety. We’ve expanded community violence intervention efforts, launched alternative crisis response programs and created youth job opportunities to give kids a path away from violence. Our cities are building modern safety infrastructures that allow police to focus on violent crime while also deploying mental health professionals and community-based responders when they’re needed most. Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans in Washington are gutting the very programs helping us prevent violence and rebuild public trust. That means fewer mental health responders, fewer resources for youth and less funding for law enforcement agencies. And the people paying the price are our residents, who deserve to feel safe in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. We know what works. We’ve made significant progress. But the job’s not done. We need our federal partners to build with us, not tear down what’s working. Here’s the secret: Despite the noise and finger-pointing coming from Washington, real change is happening on the ground. You see, mayors don’t have the luxury of inaction. We are expected to show up and continue to deliver for our communities, to ensure their safety — no excuses. While Donald Trump makes our communities less safe and tries to undermine our cities, we will never stop fighting to protect them and to move them forward. Because that’s what mayors do: We get things done.
Justin Bibb
Justin Bibb is the 58th Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio and the president of the Democratic Mayors Association. 
