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Crime incidents reported by the Rochester Police Department continued their downward trend in the first quarter.
Through the first three months of 2026, incidents of violent crime (which includes aggravated assault, robbery, and homicide) declined slightly, with 232 versus 234 in 2025. Proportionally, aggravated assaults were a large share of this category compared to last year.
There were only three homicides in the first quarter, however, down from eight a year ago and a low not seen in nearly a decade; 2017 and 2018 each had only three homicides in the first quarter as well. This comes after a spike in violence nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which Rochester saw its highest rates of violence in decades.
“When violent crime and gun violence increased by exponential rates, we came together like never before to confront this unprecedented challenge, just like that first bricklayer, with no fear of toil. And our resilience paid off,” Mayor Malik Evans said in his State of the City address this month.
Over the last five years, the city’s approach has largely been to use Gun Involved Violence Elimination and other state funding to upgrade RPD technology; ramp up enforcement through the gun violence state of emergency launched in 2022; expand community engagement; and focus on workforce development.
“Our children are becoming more robust than ever before, embracing opportunities for what I always say is the best crime-prevention program there is, a j, o, b,” Evans said in his address, spelling out the word. “A job!”
The decline in crime comes even as RPD Chief David Smith often cites staffing issues, with recruitment efforts still not closing the 120-position gap. RPD recently expanded its candidate pool and will accept recruits as old as 42.
Of the three listed homicides this year, one in fact was an attempted murder. A shootout between a suspect and police on Lake Avenue in late March left an RPD officer with injuries that required a three-day hospital stay. The incident was classified as an “attempted aggravated murder of a police officer.” The police later said that the suspect had fatally shot himself that same night after an RPD drone shone a light on his position.
Violence and firearm-related crime continue to be concentrated in the Crescent neighborhoods of the city’s northeast, northwest, and southwest areas. While there was only one firearm homicide in the first quarter, the 32 nonfatal shooting victims is notably higher than the 21 reported in the same period a year ago.
The most likely shooting victims continue to be Black (64 percent of all victims), male (71 percent), and young (42 percent were between ages 14 and 25).
Incidents classified as property crime (larceny, motor vehicle theft, and burglary) were down 16 percent from 2025. Declining motor vehicle thefts have primarily driven this change, perhaps further signaling that the rash of thefts during 2023 could be an isolated spike.
That spike led Rochester to sign on to a lawsuit that year targeting Kia America Inc. and Hyundai Motor America Inc. for negligent security measures. In December 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that a coalition of 36 attorneys general had received $9 million from those manufacturers for their failure to install “proper anti-theft technology.”
The settlement called for Hyundai and Kia to pay up to $4.5 million to consumers whose cars were recently stolen or damaged, pay an additional $4.5 million in penalties to the states, and take a range of measures to protect customers’ vehicles from theft. New York is expected to receive more than $220,000.
Customers have until March 21, 2027, to submit a claim in this case.
Although they have fallen considerably since their peak three years ago, reports of theft of or from a car were still mainly in areas known for their nightlife. The eastern part of Center City, which includes Parcel 5 and the East End parking garage, and the East End entertainment district, had the highest concentration of motor vehicle theft.
Overall, property crime remains concentrated in the southeast part of the city. Center City, East End and the University of Rochester continue to be hotspots for this type of crime.
The patrol beat that covers East Ridge Road also had a large number of property crimes reported in the first quarter. Eighty percent of those incidents were reports of petty larceny, shoplifting, defined as a value less than $1,000, from the Walmart superstore on Hudson Avenue.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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There are a lot of property crimes, harassment, and attempted assaults are unreported or if reported no arrests are made. Since the no bail and raise the age laws took effect some police have told me they have been instructed by the “powers to be”not to make it a priority; so they are slow to respond or don’t respond at all. Thus, some of us don’t report these crimes or even if they are reported no arrests are made. So crimes like property damage, harassment, attempted assault, etc don’t show up in the statistics. My conclusion is that we’re in the midst of a crime wave that is undocumented.