Denver Homicides Dropped Sharply in 2025, Police Say

Denver recorded a sharp drop in homicides in 2025, with police reporting that killings fell by nearly half from the year before, according to year-end data released by the Denver Police Department.

The DPD says the 2025 total ranks among the lowest homicide counts Denver has seen in decades, even as the city’s population has continued to grow. Police leadership attributes the decline to a combination of focused patrols, investigative work and technology, alongside coordinated efforts in areas that have historically seen higher levels of crime.

“I am extremely proud of our patrol officers and investigators whose work directly impacted the decrease in violent crime,” Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas says in a statement, adding that the department views the reductions as progress rather than a finish line.

And the job’s definitely not over, according to Robert Davis, who heads the nonprofit Denver Task Force on Reimagining Policing and Public Safety. “As a community, we are pleased to see a decrease in homicides,” he tells Westword. “We are especially grateful to the community youth organizations and community anti-violence organizations that are on the street, making the largest impact. We believe that if Denver were to make an even larger investment in community-led gang reduction and anti-violence organizations, we would see an even greater impact.”

The DPD pointed to expanded downtown enforcement tied to the city’s Clean and Safe initiative and the mayor’s Downtown Safety Action Plan, which increased foot, mounted, motorcycle and e-bike patrols this year, and added a police kiosk in the core of the city. Officers have also continued to concentrate on late-night activity in LoDo and the Ballpark neighborhood during bar closing hours.

Beyond downtown, the department highlights its Place Network Investigations strategy, which targets locations linked to repeated violent crime. Police say several of those identified locations saw no firearm homicides or shootings last year.

Technology figures prominently in the department’s accounting of its success preventing homicides. Denver’s Real Time Crime Center, which pulls together camera feeds, drones and other surveillance tools, was credited with helping officers identify suspects and gather evidence. That the city’s automated license plate reader system, which has drawn criticism from civil liberties advocates, proved instrumental in two homicide cases and “numerous nonfatal shootings, armed robberies, and hit-and-run cases,” according to the DPD announcement.

Mayor Mike Johnston praises what he describes as data-driven strategies while saying the city intends to build on those results in 2026. “Denverites deserve to live in the safest city in the country,” Johnston says regarding the DPD announcement.

According to police, arguments and confrontations continued to be the most common circumstances leading up to the homicides that did occur last year, with domestic violence also cited as a recurring factor, though at lower levels than the year before.

Alongside the homicide decline, police report drops in shootings and several other major crime categories in 2025. Department officials frame the figures as evidence that recent approaches are impacting violent crime levels, while cautioning that sustained enforcement and prevention efforts are needed to keep violence down.