The murder rate in Toledo dropped for the third consecutive year in 2024, to the lowest point since a pandemic crime surge.
The small city is representative of a wider trend: , , and metros all over the country have experienced similar declines in recent years.
Nationwide data for the entire year hasn鈥檛 been released yet, but the that if early trends held, it鈥檚 possible 2024 had the biggest countrywide percent drop in homicides ever recorded.
鈥淭his is an encouraging trend,鈥 said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz. 鈥淣ow, the challenge is to continue this positive momentum into 2025.鈥
How far has crime fallen?
Following COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, crime across the United States .
鈥淭here were so many things about the pandemic that just created almost a perfect storm for bad outcomes,鈥 Kapszukiewicz said. 鈥淚n particular, violent crime and homicides all over the country went way up, and Toledo was no different.鈥
In 2021, the number of homicides in the city reached : were murdered.
But since then, that number has dropped dramatically, at a faster rate than the national average. Last year, the number of murders in the city fell 18%, following a 30% reduction the year before.

鈥淲e don't want this conversation to be too academic or sterile,鈥 Kapszukiewicz said, 鈥渂ecause fundamentally we're talking about human lives and the loss of human life. But if we can for a moment talk about it numerically, I think it is important to highlight that the number of homicides we're seeing in Toledo right now is pretty consistent with what the 30-year average has been. And that is encouraging, especially in the aftermath of the unacceptably higher numbers.鈥
Other types of crime in the city have fallen, too: 2024 saw fewer shots fired, fewer arsons, fewer auto thefts and burglaries.
鈥淓very category we measure in Toledo has seen massive reductions the last couple of years,鈥 Kapszukiewicz said. 鈥淚t is true to say that Toledo is certainly a safer place than it was last year and the year before that and the year before that.鈥
How did Toledo reduce crime?
No single approach can eliminate crime in a city, Kapszukiewicz said.
鈥淪o in Toledo, what we've decided to do is a little bit of everything.鈥
To start, the city increased the size of its police force. For about two decades, the size of the Toledo Police Department had been steadily declining. Since Kapszukiewicz took office in 2018, it鈥檚 grown by 50 officers.
鈥淚 don't know that anyone thinks that all you have to do to reduce crime is to hire more police. But it is one of the things you need to do,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hen you have more officers, they鈥檙e able to do more of the community policing that we all know works.鈥
Police violence is a worry, Kapszukiewicz said. But he鈥檚 confident in the annual training Toledo police officers receive on topics like de-escalation techniques.
鈥淚t probably doesn't eliminate the problem, or the threat, altogether,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut I think it puts us in a position where our officers are going to be the best trained in the state of Ohio to avoid those incidents.鈥
Additional steps to reduce crime
On top of its expansion of the local police force, Toledo also invested in summer programming for youth, including classes on topics like cooking, coding and podcasting.
鈥淲e just wanted to provide positive, healthy alternatives for kids during the summer,鈥 Kapszukiewicz said.
The city also prioritized fighting blight and addressing vacant homes 鈥 environmental factors that can sometimes lead to crime.
And Toledo created what it calls the Mayor鈥檚 Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, or MONSE.
鈥淭hese are the violence interrupters that try to head off spats before they become homicides,鈥 Kapszukiewicz said. 鈥淭heir idea is to build relationships and be the early warning eyes and ears to help us prevent bad things from happening in the first place.鈥
It鈥檚 impossible to eliminate crime from a city entirely, Kapszukiewicz said.
鈥淏ut our goal is to see continued improvement, and I think that's what the public expects,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 don't think the public expects perfection. But I do think they expect progress.鈥
鈥淲e've seen some real progress over the last three years. We want to see that continue in 2025. And we're going to work to make sure that happens.鈥