Columbus is likely to hit a milestone in violent crime prevention it hasn't seen in about a decade: keeping the number of homicides in the city under 100.
The Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children, or MOMCC, have tried to get the number of Columbus homicides "under triple digits" for years. The group may achieve its goal this year as the city sits at 81 homicides as of Wednesday.
Columbus Division of Police data shows the steep drop in homicides is lower than every year's total since at least 2013. In 2021, the city experienced a record number of homicides at 205.
MOMCC founder Malissa Thomas St. Clair told an audience of the group's members and supporters gathered at the Columbus Metropolitan Library downtown on Wednesday their efforts with police and community leaders to reduce homicides are working.
"We sit with evidence. Evidence that when a community chooses faith over fear, when we choose collaboration over division, when we use action over silence, and when we chose humanity over politics, lives are saved," Thomas St. Clair said.
Joining MOMCC were Columbus police leaders, homicide detectives, community leaders and elected officials from the city, state and county.
The group read the names of all 81 homicide victims killed in 2025 as of Wednesday to the crowd. Thomas St. Clair and other speakers repeatedly stressed the importance of not thinking of the victims as statistics.
"That's 81 sons, 81 daughters, 81 families forever changed. These are not statistics, these are classrooms with empty seats. These are neighborhoods with broken hearts. Mothers who will never feel the same again," Thomas St. Clair said.
Columbus isn't alone amongst large American cities seeing a drop in homicides after a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. NPR reported in June that in 2024, murders dropped 14% nationally.
Columbus 1st Assistant Chief of Police LaShanna Potts told reporters following the event she thinks Columbus is unique despite lower homicide rates becoming a national trend.
"I know that other cities are seeing a decrease in crime, but we talked to our counterparts in other major cities. They are not seeing in a way that Columbus is seeing and oftentimes they're referring to us as a national model," Potts said.
Thomas St. Clair agreed, saying she thinks in Columbus the community now understands the police department, even going as far as to say the community trusts CPD because of reforms and changes that have taken place.
"We can invite them to anything and we know the answer is going to be yes. That's transformational," Thomas St. Clair said. "I'm not quite sure if that model is everywhere, but we can go into headquarters and understand that this is because of the relationship and not because I have to turn myself in."
Columbus Police Deputy Chief Justin Coleman, who oversees the homicide division, said Columbus has seen a drop in other crimes as well. He and Potts pointed to strategies CPD is implementing as the reason.
"While we are talking about our homicides, we can show that we have a collective drop across the border for not only just one specific category there, but felonies, assaults, robberies, all the way through some of our property crimes," Coleman said.
One of these strategies is a pilot program started last year in the Milo Grogan neighborhood that sought to investigate non-fatal shootings with the same resources and rigor as homicides. CPD reported the solve rate for these cases skyrocketed.
CPD announced last month that the program will be expanded next year.
Thomas St. Clair and many of the other speakers said it's important that the work doesn't stop. Thomas St. Clair said their work won't stop until there are no homicides.
