Rochester Mayor Reports "Historic Decline" in Gun Violence as Shootings and Homicides Fall
Gun violence in Rochester has fallen to levels not seen in more than a decade, according to new data released by Mayor Malik Evans, continuing a downward trend that city officials say reflects a combination of policing, violence-prevention programs, community partnerships and targeted intervention strategies.
At a recent public safety update, Evans announced that several key measures of gun violence are now substantially below their 10-year averages.
According to an August report submitted to New York State through the Gun Involved Violence Elimination, or GIVE, initiative, total shooting victims in Rochester were 40% below the 10-year average, while gun-related homicides were down 68%.
Aggravated assault shootings were 37% below the 10-year average. Total gunfire incidents were down 28%, prohibited-use-of-a-weapon cases were down 25%, and reckless endangerment cases were 20% below the decade average.
“Gun violence and violent crime continue to fall to levels not seen in more than a decade and outpace the national decline,” Evans said.
The mayor credited Rochester's willingness to use new crime-reduction technologies and strategies, along with cooperation among law enforcement agencies and community organizations.
The decline represents a significant turnaround from the surge in shootings Rochester experienced during and immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic.
By 2025, Rochester was already showing substantial improvement. During the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day that year, 57 people were shot, compared with 65 during the same period in 2024. At the height of the pandemic-era violence in 2021, 142 people were shot during that same summer period.
Rochester recorded 11 homicides during the summer of 2025, making it the second-lowest summer homicide total of the previous decade.
The continued improvement in 2026 suggests the reduction is becoming more than a single-year fluctuation.
But determining precisely what is driving the decline is more complicated.
City officials point in part to Rochester's participation in the state's GIVE initiative, which provides funding and encourages cooperation among police departments, prosecutors and other agencies while emphasizing evidence-based approaches to gun violence.
Rochester also has expanded its approach beyond traditional policing.
Violence-prevention efforts include Pathways to Peace, youth intervention programs and partnerships involving the city's Office of Violence Prevention, Department of Recreation and Human Services and Rochester City School District.
Police have also changed some investigative practices. In previous years, investigations could effectively stall when shooting victims refused to cooperate with police. Rochester police officials said last year that detectives were increasingly investigating shootings as full cases even when victims were unwilling to assist investigators.
Police have also used targeted foot patrols in areas experiencing concentrations of violence.
Community advocates have cautioned against attributing the decline to any single program or agency.
Willie Lightfoot, founder of the ROC Against Gun Violence Coalition and a Rochester City Council member, told WXXI last year that reducing violence requires a broad approach involving police, government agencies and community organizations.
The city's violence-prevention infrastructure has grown considerably over the past several years, including programs designed to intervene with young people before conflicts escalate into shootings and efforts to provide assistance to families following homicides.
At the same time, community advocates have argued that the conditions that contribute to violence — including poverty, addiction, housing instability, neighborhood disinvestment and concentrated drug activity — have not disappeared simply because shootings have declined.
That distinction is particularly important in some of Rochester's predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, where residents have endured decades of concentrated poverty and disproportionately high levels of violence.
Despite the improved numbers, Rochester remains under the gun violence state of emergency that Evans continued after taking office.
The administration also continues to use emergency authority against properties where officials say dangerous activity is occurring.
City Corporation Counsel Patrick Beath said seven emergency orders were issued during the summer, including one involving a short-term rental property at 1099 Monroe Ave., where officials said a party was connected to a shooting.
The continued use of those measures illustrates the balancing act facing city officials: celebrating significant progress without suggesting that Rochester's gun violence problem has been solved.
Evans acknowledged as much while discussing the latest statistics, saying residents should recognize that the numbers are moving in the right direction while understanding that more work remains.
The improving gun violence numbers also stand in sharp contrast to another troubling public safety problem.
Domestic violence remains exceptionally high in Rochester and Monroe County.
A newly released annual report counted 4,481 criminal domestic violence reports across Monroe County in 2025 and more than 37,000 calls to 911 involving domestic disputes. The rate of domestic violence reporting in Rochester remains approximately two-and-a-half times the statewide average.
Evans has identified domestic violence as one of the city's most persistent public safety challenges even as shootings decline.
That contrast underscores a broader reality about Rochester's improving crime statistics: progress in one category of violence does not necessarily translate into improvement across every measure of community safety.
Still, the gun violence numbers mark an important shift for a city that only a few years ago was confronting record or near-record levels of shootings.
The question now is whether Rochester can sustain those reductions — and whether the strategies credited with reducing shootings can be combined with longer-term investments addressing the poverty, addiction, neighborhood instability and interpersonal conflicts that often contribute to violence.
For city officials and community organizations, maintaining the progress may prove just as important as achieving it.
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