Wichita saw a slight increase in homicides last year. Here’s why and what police say

Wichita ended 2025 with 45 homicides, up two from the year before but still in line with the average for the last few years.

The slight year-over-year increase comes as other larger U.S. cities see their least amount of killings in decades.

Throughout most of 2025, Wichita’s homicides were down from 2024. But the city saw 10 homicides in September, including three in one day and two another.

Police made an arrest or solved 91% of the cases, putting the Wichita Police Department well above the 61% clearance rate reported nationwide in 2024, according to the FBI.

Wichita police data shows that, among the violent crime data tracked statewide, reports of robbery and aggravated assault/battery were down in 2025 compared to the year before, while reports of rape were up. All of Wichita’s property crimes categories — burglary, larceny and auto theft — were down between 11% and 18%, police data shows.

One of those 45 homicides actually happened in 2024, but wasn’t ruled a homicide until 2025, so it is counted with Wichita’s homicides for 2025. That was a drug overdose.

It was one of at least two drug overdoses labeled homicides.

Wichita police Capt. Aaron Moses said the hiring of an overdose analyst means that some drug-related deaths may now be deemed homicides when they weren’t in the past.

Other factors in the number of homicides were an increase in child-abuse deaths and in accidental homicides from unsafe handling of a gun, he said.

There were at least two deaths for child abuse and at least three accidental homicides from someone mishandling a firearm. After two incidents where a child got access to a gun and accidentally killed another child, the police department partnered with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office and Wesley Children’s Hospital in March 2025 to provide free gun locks.

“Although national trends vary from city to city, Wichita’s experience reflects a combination of unique local factors, improved investigative practices, and evolving patterns of violence,” Moses said. “Our focus remains on reducing violence in all forms and preventing harm before it occurs.”

Here is a look at Wichita’s 2025 homicides compared with previous years:

2025: 45 homicides with an average age of 32; the suspects had an average age of 30. Authorities determined three of the homicides were justified, including one fatal shooting involving Wichita police.

2024: 43 homicides with an average age of 32; the suspects had an average age of 25. Three of those homicides were officer-involved.

2023: 48 homicides with an average age of 36; the suspects had an average age of 33. There was one fatal, officer-involved shooting.

2022: 35 homicides with an average age of 26; the suspects had an average age of 28. There was one officer-involved fatal shooting.

2021: 54 homicides with an average age of 30. There were two fatal, officer-involved shootings.

2020 set a Wichita record with 59 homicides, surpassing the previous record of 57 in 1993.

Wichita’s slight year-over-year homicide increase in 2025 is counter to what has been reported by other major cities, with dozens seeing noticeable drops, according to a study by the Council on Criminal Justice.

When FBI releases nationwide data for homicides later this year, there is a “strong possibility” that it will show the lowest rate since 1900 and represent the largest-single year drop on record, the study says.

Thirty-one of the 35 cities in the study saw year-over-year drops in homicides. Ten of those cities saw a drop of 30% or more, including Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angles, and, with the highest drop, Denver – though the numbers in the report don’t all align with other reports.

Denver police reported a 47% drop, compared with the study saying 41%, from 70 homicides in 2024 to 37 last year, according to The Denver Gazette. Los Angeles saw a 19% reduction, not the 36% reported in the study, from 284 in 2024 to 230 last year, the Los Angeles Daily News reported, which reported it was the city’s lowest number of homicides since 1966.

The study’s percentage decreases were close for Chicago and right for Baltimore, both of which reported their fewest homicides in at least 50 years, officials reported.

The study did not include Wichita.

This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 6:13 AM.