Homicides in Detroit, Michigan, fell 25% this summer compared with the same stretch last year, Mayor Mary Sheffield and Police Chief Todd Bettison said Monday at a press conference at the Adams Butzel Recreation Center on Lyndon Street on the city’s northwest side.
From June through August, the city recorded 42 homicides, down from 56 during the summer of 2025. Part 1 violent crime dropped 9% over the same months. Carjackings showed the steepest summer decline, falling from 26 to 17, and burglaries and motor vehicle thefts also fell by double digits.
The number of juvenile homicide victims fell from nine last summer to one this summer, a drop of about 89%. City leaders said every category of major crime the city tracks was down year over year.
The trend holds for the first nine months of 2026. Bettison said homicides stand at 105 so far this year, an 18% decline, while nonfatal shootings slipped almost 9% to 322 and carjackings fell from 65 to 51.
Sheffield credited part of the improvement to Occupy the Summer, a 10-week youth program that offered skate nights, late-night basketball and other neighborhood events. The city budgeted $1.5 million for the effort, which also handed out bicycles, sneakers and backpacks to young people at no cost.
Police also leaned on curfew enforcement. Officers issued 85 juvenile curfew citations from June through August, up 28% from a year earlier, while parental responsibility citations fell 25% to 44 as officers used discretion when parents were not at fault. Bettison said violence remains too high and that the long-term goal is to push annual homicides below 100.
