Los Alamos County Reports 20% Drop in Crime in 2025

Crime reported to police in Los Alamos County fell 20% in 2025, according to a report released Jan. 30, 2026, a shift that carries implications for local policing, prevention programs and municipal budgeting. The same report also shows a mixed pattern across offense types: “Overall, crime reported to police in all categories fell 20%, with Crimes Against Persons increasing from 47 to 56, Crimes Against Property decreasing from 153 to 110, and Crimes Against Society decreasing from 22 to 12. Consistent with crime reported to police in 2024”

The county’s headline decline mirrors broader, preliminary trends seen in independent analysis and multi-city studies. National analysts and researchers describe 2025 as a year of unusually large declines in several offense categories. Jeff Asher summarized a nationwide picture with blunt language: “Crime almost certainly fell an enormous amount in 2025,” and noted that in an RTCI sample “Overall violent crime is down more than 10 percent in the RTCI sample through October while overall property crime is down more than 12 percent.” Asher and other analysts caution that numbers remain preliminary and subject to revision.

A study by the Council on Criminal Justice reinforced the scale of the year-over-year change in many urban areas. “The overall reduction in crime, especially homicide, is welcome news, especially for communities long plagued by high levels of violence,” the CCJ wrote, and recorded that “In the study cities, homicide declined by 21% from 2024 to 2025 and 17% from 2023 to 2024.” CCJ emphasizes the methodological limits of city samples: “The 40 cities are not necessarily representative of all jurisdictions in the United States. Not all cities published data for each offense ... Not all crimes are reported to law enforcement. In addition, the data collected for this report are subject to revision by local jurisdictions.”

National press analyses have likewise noted large historic shifts while flagging remaining uncertainty. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation has not yet released nationwide crime data for all of 2025, but statistics published by cities and collected by independent researchers are already telling the latest chapter of a remarkable story,” wrote New York Times analysts, who reported that 2025 may produce the lowest national homicide rate in more than a century. They also note exceptions, saying that “In most places, homicides fell in 2025, continuing a yearslong trend, but they rose in Milwaukee and Little Rock, Ark.”

For Los Alamos residents, the county figures mean a measurable easing of property crime pressure alongside a modest rise in crimes against persons as counted in the report. Lower property crime may affect homeowners, retailers and visitors while the rise in person-focused offenses will shape how the Sheriff’s Office and county leaders prioritize patrols, prevention and outreach. County officials, public safety partners and civic organizations should pursue the data behind the headline numbers to understand whether changes reflect shifts in reporting, law enforcement activity, underlying victimization or demographic and economic factors.

Beyond local policing, experts point to wider enforcement and financial-crime dynamics that will shape the coming year: changes in anti-bribery enforcement and a sharp rise in AI-enabled fraud have been flagged at the national and international level. For readers, the next milestones to watch are the FBI’s official 2025 national release, the CCJ appendix showing city-level coverage, and any county-level briefings that clarify denominators and timeframes for the figures cited. Those documents will determine whether this decline represents a durable improvement in public safety for Los Alamos County or a more complex shift in reporting and enforcement.