Tampa's violent crime rate slips below the U.S. rate
Tampa police averaged 25.2 offenses per 100,000 per month from February through July, compared with 26.2 offenses per 100,000 per month nationwide.
Tampa's violent crime rate dropped below the national rate this year. It is still above Florida's, and the state's rate moved in the opposite direction.
From February through July 2026, the Tampa Police Department reported an average of 25.2 offenses per 100,000 per month, according to monthly agency crime reports. That is 10.5% lower than the 28.2 offenses per 100,000 per month the department reported over the same months of 2025.
How does Tampa compare with Florida and the U.S.?
Nationally, the rate fell 6.6%, to 26.2 offenses per 100,000 per month. A year earlier, Tampa's rate sat slightly above the U.S. rate of 28 offenses per 100,000 per month. This year it came in below it.
Florida went the other way. The statewide rate rose 15.9%, from 17.9 offenses per 100,000 per month to 20.8 offenses per 100,000 per month. Tampa still reports more violent crime per resident than the state as a whole, but the gap between the city and the state is smaller than it was a year ago.
What about the rest of Hillsborough County?
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reported 10.1 offenses per 100,000 per month over the same months, 3.9% lower than its 10.5 offenses per 100,000 per month in 2025. Its rate was below both the Florida and U.S. rates in both years.
In Temple Terrace, the police department's rate fell 47.4%, from 34.2 offenses per 100,000 per month to 18 offenses per 100,000 per month. That moved the city from above the national rate in 2025 to below both the national and state rates in 2026.
These agencies serve different parts of the county, so their rates are shown side by side here rather than ranked. Each rate counts violent offenses reported to that department relative to the population of the area it covers.
Did every kind of violent crime fall in Tampa?
No. Homicides in Tampa climbed in the first half of 2026 (hoodline.com), even as reported aggravated assaults, robberies and rapes all fell (hoodline.com). Across large U.S. communities, homicides fell over the same period (hoodline.com).
The increase started from an unusually low base. In 2025, Tampa recorded its lowest annual homicide total in decades (hoodline.com), along with fewer non-fatal shootings (hoodline.com). That year the city ranked among the lowest in total violent crime among major U.S. cities (hoodline.com).
Other Florida cities split over the same midyear comparison. Orlando's homicides rose, while Miami's fell (hoodline.com).
When the midyear survey was reported, the Tampa Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on it (hoodline.com).
The department now has new leadership. Chief Lee Bercaw retired effective Aug. 5, and Mayor Jane Castor appointed Assistant Chief Brett Owen as acting chief of police (hoodline.com). The months under Owen fall after this comparison, which ends in July.
About the data
We used monthly violent crime counts reported by the Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Temple Terrace Police Department, converted to rates based on the population each agency serves, and averaged them over February through July of 2025 and 2026, the complete months after each agency's switch to incident-based reporting. We compared each agency's change with Florida and U.S. rates for the same months and present the agencies separately rather than ranking them. Homicide and offense-category changes come from a separate midyear survey of large police agencies that covers the first half of each year, so those figures do not line up exactly with our months.
- Recent months of crime data are preliminary and can be revised as agencies update their reports.
- In a smaller jurisdiction such as Temple Terrace, a handful of offenses can move the rate sharply from one year to the next.
- Reported crime counts only offenses that reach police, and these figures cannot say why rates changed.
Violent crime rate: the number of violent offenses reported to an agency, scaled to the population it serves and averaged here by month. NIBRS: the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System, the incident-level format police agencies now use to submit crime data.
Sources
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Tampa Police Department: violent crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 19, 2026. Data
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office: violent crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 19, 2026. Data
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Plant City Police Department: violent crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 19, 2026. Data
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Temple Terrace Police Department: violent crime, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 19, 2026. Data
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