Welcome to the Real-Time Crime Index

The RTCI is a sample of reported crime data from hundreds of law enforcement agencies nationwide which mimics national crime trends with as little lag and the most accuracy possible. Crime statistics are inexact, but sampling agencies in this way is a proven method for accurately measuring trends while waiting for national crime estimates published each year. Standardizing the offenses collected and time periods measured from hundreds of agencies makes it possible to evaluate trends up or down as they develop.

Not all crimes are reported to police, and the RTCI can only measure those offenses that are reported to police. Crime data is inherently imprecise with frequent (usually small) variations between different data sources. This methodology is designed to ensure that crime trends are being captured accurately even if the exact figures reported either publicly by an agency or by the FBI may differ depending on the available data source. Not every agency in the RTCI has available data for every offense type; it does not include every agency in the RTCI or U.S. The number of agencies and population coverage for the full sample for other crimes is slightly smaller than the full nationwide sample for murder.

These figures represent reported crimes published by agencies, which may not represent the entirety of crimes in a city, if served by multiple agencies or when accounting for offenses that do not get reported to police. Agencies also can report crimes months after they occur, so figures for each agency are subject to change. The data collection methodology differs between cities, not every city is included in the RTCI sample, not every agency reports every offense type, and not every agency has complete data through the most recent reporting period.  As such, ranking between cities is imprecise and inadvisable, and users should be cautious when comparing crime counts for one city against another city’s counts.

Users can sort data by monthly counts or a rolling sum over 12 months. The rolling sum over 12 months represents the total number of crimes reported in the most recent 12 months, so murders rolling over 12 months in February 2024 is the total number of murders in a locale between March 2023 and February 2024. Viewing crime data in this way accounts for seasonal effects on crime.

Select the table view to see Year-to-Date and monthly totals for every agency in the RTCI.

The RTCI is updated in the middle of a month to reflect crimes that occurred in the month before the most recent month (an update published in mid-July, for example, covers crimes committed through May). Users can view the nationwide sample or drill down on individual agencies, but only agencies that have reportable data through the most recent update month are included in calculating the national sample.

The RTCI is an evolving project which will grow in terms of cities, topics, and methodologies employed, so check back often to see new features and datasets.

For more information on the data sources and methodology used to power the RTCI, click here.