The city of Boston is on pace to record a significant drop in violent crime in 2024 driven by a notable decline in shootings and homicides.

There have been 24 murders so far in 2024, which is believed to the lowest since 1957, according to city officials.

Overall gun violence is down 14 percent compared to last year and 37 percent compared to the five-year average, according to Mayor Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who briefed reporters on the year-end statistics during a press conference at BPD headquarters on Friday afternoon.

This will be the third consecutive year of a drop in shooting incidents and gunshot victims, according to Cox and Isaac Yablo, the Mayor’s Senior Advisor for Community Safety, who also discussed the trends at Friday’s briefing. If the trends hold, 2024 will record the lowest number of shooting victims since 2005, they said.

“When we do well at keeping violent crime down, we do well at doing everything else,” said Mayor Wu. “We know there is more work to do. Today is not a victory lap, but a report out. We look forward to much more work ahead and continuing to drive down every category of crime.”

In fact, some “Part One” crime categories have increased in Boston this year. Property crimes have increased 2 percent, commercial burglaries are up 6 percent, and arrests have gone up 9 percent, Cox said.

Cox emphasized that reported shootings is down by 14 percent this year compared to the previous year and down 37 percent when compared to the five-year average. Over the last twenty years, Boston averaged more than 260 victims shot per year. But over the past three years, this has declined by over 100 victims per year.

“This was the lowest year of incidents of gunfire in the city since 2011 when we began reliably tracking the statistics,” Cox said.

“Considering the historic run we have had, we thought it was important to really give an outlay of what we planned on doing and what we plan on doing in the future regarding crime and public safety throughout the city, particularly under Mayor Wu’s watch,” Cox added.

He added: “Our mission is to partner with the community to fight crime, reduce fear, and improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Quite frankly our mission is community policing.”

Cox said BPD credits some of the progress to community partnerships built over a number of years. Mayor Wu pointed to recent innovations like Community CompStats, the deployment of community intervention teams, and bringing back weekly youth safety meetings.

For her part, Mayor Wu said Boston residents are “in good hands and the numbers certainly show that.”

But she quickly added: “It's not about numbers. It is that safety is the foundation for everything we do in making Boston a home for everyone. Safety isn’t just the absence of harm, or fear, or violence it is the positive affirmation of belonging.”
Yablo agreed saying, “The main thing here is we are not done. We will continue to get better. We cannot rest well until we are at zero [crime] that is our goal. We won't stop until we get to zero.”

“Unfortunately, bad things can happen in any neighborhood given the right circumstances. Our first responsibility is to prevent it and our second is to hold people accountable,” said Cox.

He continued: “This city has never been safer, period. When it comes to crime, particularly violent crime. I’m a long-time resident of the city and I've never been more proud of the leadership and the city in relation to crime.”

“One murder is too many, any crime is too much, but the fact is we are getting tremendously good at addressing these things year after year,” said Cox.

Watch the press conference here: