Montgomery County - 20% Rise in Murders in 2025

[Anonymous]

Montgomery County’s murder rate increased 20% in 2025 while DC, PG, and NoVA counties all had steep declines. Remember this when you vote in the primaries next week. We cannot be the only county working backwards in the fight against violent crimes.

Some context.

Montgomery County had 24 murders in 2025 compared to 20 in 2024. It had a population just over 1 million.
Source: https://www.thebanner.com/community/criminal-justice/homicides-montgomery-county-2025-2BSCDSYXNNHCZLJTUOSSGSRSAA/

Fairfax has roughly the same population and had 12 murders in 2025, a decrease from 2024.

PG County had 58 homicides in 2025 compared to 99 in 2024, a 41% decline.

Arlington had 1 murder in 2025, despite having a population of around 245,000.

DC had a 40% drop in murders in 2025, but it’s not fair to compare because of National Guard assistance.

What are Arlington and Fairfax doing that Montgomery County can do to be better in fighting violent crime? Will Friedson, Glass, or Jawando do a better job in fighting violent crime?

[Anonymous]

First, every murder is tragic and I don't mew to downplay how horrible that is.

But the percentage jump is unnecessarily misleading because the numbers are so low.

And if you dig into them more, many are domestic violence. Men killing their mothers, their wives, etc. That doesn't make it less disturbing. But it's not stranger violence or gang violence or drug dealer violence.

I'm not saying there isn't more to be done, but it's not really worth sounding an alarm. I think a helpful measure would be looking at non fatal shootings too. And aggravated assaults. I believe both were down significantly for 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, every murder is tragic and I don't mew to downplay how horrible that is.

But the percentage jump is unnecessarily misleading because the numbers are so low.

And if you dig into them more, many are domestic violence. Men killing their mothers, their wives, etc. That doesn't make it less disturbing. But it's not stranger violence or gang violence or drug dealer violence.

I'm not saying there isn't more to be done, but it's not really worth sounding an alarm. I think a helpful measure would be looking at non fatal shootings too. And aggravated assaults. I believe both were down significantly for 2025.

+1. The numbers are so small that percentage changes aren't meaningful. Montgomery County had a 20% rise in 2025, a year before that was a 30% drop, the year before that was a 40% increase, the year before that was a 40% decline. A big enough change over a long enough time might mean something, but year to year fluctuation doesn't.

[Anonymous]

It would be helpful to see an itemized breakdown with age, gender, race/ethnicity, etc. along with whether it was gang/drug related, DV, or random.

I mean, we can all make assumptions, but that data would be helpful.

[Anonymous]

Pages 6-7 have age, ethnicity breakdown of victims of violent crime but not by category like DV or gang violence.

https://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=169&clip_id=18787&meta_id=222433

[Anonymous]

For additional context in 1995 PG had 147 murders, DC had 320, and Montgomery County had 20. To be just as dangerous, if not 20% more dangerous, as it was at the height of the crack epidemic is not good. Especially when PG’s and DC’s murder stats are a fraction of what they were then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, every murder is tragic and I don't mew to downplay how horrible that is.

But the percentage jump is unnecessarily misleading because the numbers are so low.

And if you dig into them more, many are domestic violence. Men killing their mothers, their wives, etc. That doesn't make it less disturbing. But it's not stranger violence or gang violence or drug dealer violence.

I'm not saying there isn't more to be done, but it's not really worth sounding an alarm. I think a helpful measure would be looking at non fatal shootings too. And aggravated assaults. I believe both were down significantly for 2025.

I think it’s worth sounding an alarm when Montgomery County is consistently more dangerous than its counterparts in DC suburbs with similar demographics.

Montgomery County’s most dangerous year was 2021, where 35 murders were recorded. In Fairfax, which is diverse and has as many people and is deep blue, there were 21 murders that year. In Arlington there were 0. Yes, zero!

What can we learn from these Democrat politicians in these diverse, deep blue suburbs that we can bring to Montgomery County? There has to be something to learn from a county that has 244,000 people like Arlington and records 0 murders in a year when we had 35. To think otherwise is pure hubris and ignorance.

What Democrat politicians should I vote for to reverse this trend and make the county safer and more in line with these places?

[Anonymous]

Bergen County NJ has 988,000 people, is right across from New York City, and recorded 0 murders in 2025. The median HHI in Bergen County is $4,000 LESS than Montgomery County.

We need to do better.

[Anonymous]

Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

National Guard does nothing. And ICE is here. 80% of ICE detentions have been people with no prior criminal record.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

National Guard does nothing. And ICE is here. 80% of ICE detentions have been people with no prior criminal record.

So the 20% who are criminals don’t count? I don’t understand your point. I want rapists and armed felons deported if they shouldn’t be here in the first place and I’ve never voted Republican in my life.

The problem is that this tough on illegal immigrant criminals is the mainstream position for nationwide Democrats and has been for some time, but is somehow viewed as right wing by a lot of the wackos who are in Montgomery County politics. Bill Clinton, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden were all 100% behind this sentiment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

National Guard does nothing. And ICE is here. 80% of ICE detentions have been people with no prior criminal record.

So the 20% who are criminals don’t count? I don’t understand your point. I want rapists and armed felons deported if they shouldn’t be here in the first place and I’ve never voted Republican in my life.

The problem is that this tough on illegal immigrant criminals is the mainstream position for nationwide Democrats and has been for some time, but is somehow viewed as right wing by a lot of the wackos who are in Montgomery County politics. Bill Clinton, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden were all 100% behind this sentiment.

No, the 20% are the ones that the feds have always gone after. The other 60% are the ones that ICE now detains to meet quotas alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

National Guard does nothing. And ICE is here. 80% of ICE detentions have been people with no prior criminal record.

So the 20% who are criminals don’t count? I don’t understand your point. I want rapists and armed felons deported if they shouldn’t be here in the first place and I’ve never voted Republican in my life.

The problem is that this tough on illegal immigrant criminals is the mainstream position for nationwide Democrats and has been for some time, but is somehow viewed as right wing by a lot of the wackos who are in Montgomery County politics. Bill Clinton, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden were all 100% behind this sentiment.

No, the 20% are the ones that the feds have always gone after. The other 60% are the ones that ICE now detains to meet quotas alone.

Don’t let this devolve into some MAGA is bad thread. Arlington Dems are anything but MAGA and have 4 murders from 2023-2025 while Montgomery County has had 64 murders (21 in 2023, 20 in 2024, 24 in 2025) over the same period. That disparity is atrocious and we should be doing better. South Arlington has a bunch of low income housing and Arlington is incredibly diverse. This isn’t about poverty or demographics, it isn’t about Dems not being able to do their job, it’s about SPECIFIC left wing Dems in Montgomery County not doing their job and keeping the public safe relative to their Dem peers in neighboring jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Trump needs to take notice and send in the national guard and ICE.

National Guard does nothing. And ICE is here. 80% of ICE detentions have been people with no prior criminal record.

So the 20% who are criminals don’t count? I don’t understand your point. I want rapists and armed felons deported if they shouldn’t be here in the first place and I’ve never voted Republican in my life.

The problem is that this tough on illegal immigrant criminals is the mainstream position for nationwide Democrats and has been for some time, but is somehow viewed as right wing by a lot of the wackos who are in Montgomery County politics. Bill Clinton, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden were all 100% behind this sentiment.

No, the 20% are the ones that the feds have always gone after. The other 60% are the ones that ICE now detains to meet quotas alone.

So all the illegal immigrants Obama deported were all violent criminals? Even you don’t believe that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bergen County NJ has 988,000 people, is right across from New York City, and recorded 0 murders in 2025. The median HHI in Bergen County is $4,000 LESS than Montgomery County.

We need to do better.

The difference is Bergen County doesn’t really have significant low-income rental housing. They also must have had a history of redlining or some such since I can think of several towns there with very little diversity (historically very few blacks or Latinos). I know people who grew up there and graduated high school in the 80s/90s and their yearbooks were basically all white.

Plus: gangs. They just don’t have the subculture that typically comprises gangs.

It’s hard to deal with crime once the genie is out of the bottle. But Bergen County really isn’t an apples to apples comparison to MoCo given our demographics (both racial and socioeconomics).