SEATTLE – The Seattle Police Department released its 2025 crime stats Monday afternoon during its annual year in review. 

The announcement comes on the heels of the traumatic shooting in Rainier Beach that left two Seattle Public School students dead Friday afternoon. 

What they’re saying:

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes paused briefly to acknowledge the pain felt by the community. He said that the city still has a lot of work to do to improve safety, though he’s encouraged that violent crime numbers had dropped in 2025. 

“Two Rainier Beach High School students were tragically shot and killed near a bus stop, just steps away from what has always been off limits, a public school,” said SPD Chief Barnes.

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes speaks on the fatal shooting of two Rainier Beach High School students.

The chief took a moment Monday to remember the teens who were shot and killed near Rainier High School. Friends and loved ones gathered near the site for several emotional vigils this past weekend.

“Less than 48 hours later, another young man was killed after a party. Three others were hospitalized after being shot. Their losses underscore the truth that we cannot ignore,” said Barnes. 

Despite the devastation caused by the latest round of gun violence, Barnes says the analysis of 2025 crime numbers is providing some hope for a less violent future.

“Today I stand here encouraged,” Barnes said.

By the numbers:

The chief released the department’s year in review Monday, saying there was a 36% reduction in homicides in 2025, with 21 fewer lives lost, the lowest number since the pandemic. 

2025 Homicides – SPD Year in Review

• 36% reduction in homicides
• 21 fewer lives lost than in the year before
• Lowest number of homicides since before the pandemic

He also said SPD reported that of those cases, many were solved. He said in 2025, they had a homicide clearance rate of 86% compared to just 57% in 2024.  

The numbers also included a 36% reduction in people struck by gunfire, and an 8% drop in aggravated assaults, a 24% reduction in reports of stolen vehicles and a large increase in firearms recovered. 

Crime Stats

• Reduction in people struck by gunfire by 36%
• Reduction in aggravated assault by 8%
• Reduction in stolen vehicles by 24%
• 1,500 firearms recovered (an increase of 74%)

“In 2025, we saw an 18% reduction in the overall reduction in crime in our city,” Barnes said.

Barnes said a focus on retention and recruitment also paid off in 2025, with more than 160 officers hired along with a reduced number of separations. 

2025 Retention & Recruitment

• Hired 167 officers in 2025
• More officers hired than at any other time
• SPD reduced number of officer separations

“This is not a victory lap, this is the first lap in a long marathon to work toward public safety,” Barnes said. 

He says they also used neighborhood policing officers to curtail crime in targeted areas and focused on analyzing who was committing the most crimes when it came to gun violence, including juvenile offenders.  

“We were only looking at four or more incidents where this person was caught with a gun within 18 months, and that list is about 60 people, and we have to figure out, how do we connect with them and get them on the right path?”

Barnes said the city will also install more cameras in the area of Capitol Hill near Garfield High School and in Pioneer Square, bringing the total number to around 62 located throughout the community.

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The Seattle metro area is the nation’s leading builder of affordable housing, a new analysis by RentCafe showed.

Greater Seattle saw more than 14,200 fully affordable apartments go up between 2020 and 2024, meaning nearly one in four apartments built in the area in the past five years were affordable, according to RentCafe.

Income-restricted rentals accounted for 24.2% of all new apartment construction in Seattle.

Affordable housing surged nearly 40% post-pandemic.

“The metro is building about the same number of apartments as before the pandemic — but far more of them are affordable,” RentCafe spokesperson Maurie Irimia stated in an email to MyNorthwest.

The number of completed apartments remained steady at around 59,000 units before and after the pandemic. But the share of income-restricted housing jumped from under 17% a decade ago to 24% in 2024 — rising from 10,229 units to 14,290.

Everett development helped extend affordable housing

RentCafe highlighted Four Corners, a 430-unit development in Everett.

“Backed by a $1 million grant from the Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program (CHIP), the project stands out not only for its scale, but for extending affordable housing beyond Seattle’s limits into Snohomish County,” RentCafe stated in the analysis.

Other cities that saw a rise in affordable housing were New York City, New York; Austin, Texas; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; and Atlanta, Georgia.

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