Violent crime near D.C. Metro stations up 25% this year as overall crime falls, police data show

By Rosa Montclair

WASHINGTON — Reported crime near the District’s Metro stations has fallen this year at about the same pace as crime citywide. Violent crime near the stations has moved the other way, and faster than across the city, according to an Inquisitor analysis of Metropolitan Police Department records.

From Jan. 1 through Oct. 25, MPD recorded 2,768 crimes in its public incident data within 250 meters, about 820 feet, of the District’s 40 Metrorail stations. That is down 10.9% from 3,106 in the same period of 2025. Citywide, reported crime in the same categories fell 11.7%, to 18,017 from 20,398.

Violent crime near stations rose. Homicides, robberies, assaults with a dangerous weapon and sex abuse offenses near the stations totaled 318 this year, up from 255, an increase of 24.7%. Citywide, those offenses rose 12%, to 2,343 from 2,092.

The increase is concentrated at a handful of stations. Columbia Heights, Gallery Place-Chinatown, Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Metro Center together account for 47 of the 63 additional violent incidents. Several stations that had high violent-crime counts last year, including Navy Yard-Ballpark and Rhode Island Avenue, recorded fewer this year.

The analysis covers the streets and blocks around stations, not the trains and platforms. Crimes inside the Metro system are handled mostly by the Metro Transit Police Department. Its own figures show serious crime on the system down this year.

How the analysis worked

The Inquisitor downloaded MPD’s 2026 crime incident data from the District’s public GIS service on Oct. 27 and compared it with the department’s 2025 file, published through Open Data DC. Incidents were counted by the date they were reported. The files list each reported homicide, sex abuse offense, robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, burglary, motor vehicle theft, theft from auto, other theft and arson, with an approximate block-level location. The most recent report date in the 2026 file was Oct. 25. The 2025 comparison uses the same Jan. 1 to Oct. 25 window.

Each incident within 250 meters of a station’s mapped location was assigned to the nearest station. The station locations come from the District’s Metro station map layer. Station points mark the station, not every entrance, and MPD locations are generalized to the block. The counts are best read as crime in the immediate neighborhood of a station, not crime at a station.

What changed near stations

The broad decline near stations was driven by property crime. Motor vehicle thefts within 250 meters of stations fell by half, to 151 from 306. Thefts from autos fell 35%. Both declines track citywide trends.

Robberies near stations rose 20%, to 190 from 158, even as robberies citywide were roughly flat. Assaults with a dangerous weapon rose 55%, to 113 from 73. Citywide, those assaults rose 40%. As the Inquisitor reported Sunday, police officials have acknowledged that a renewed focus on classifying crimes correctly is likely contributing to the citywide rise in those assaults, and the same factor may affect the station-area count.

Station areas accounted for about 15% of all reported crime in both years, and for 13.6% of the city’s violent crime this year, up from 12.2%.

The stations

Columbia Heights had the most reported crime of any station area this year, 402 incidents, up from 307. Most were thefts: 346 incidents were classified as other theft, up from 265. Violent incidents there rose to 28 from 16, with assaults with a dangerous weapon up to 13 from five.

Gallery Place-Chinatown, the downtown entertainment district, saw robberies nearly double, to 19 from 10. Total violent incidents there rose to 23 from 12. At Georgia Avenue-Petworth, assaults with a dangerous weapon rose to 15 from four. At Metro Center they rose to 12 from one.

Violent incidents rose at 20 of the 40 station areas, fell at 14 and were unchanged at six. Most counts are small, and small numbers can swing sharply from year to year. A change from four incidents to 10, as at Anacostia, is a large percentage increase but a small number of events.

Some station areas saw large declines in overall crime. Navy Yard-Ballpark dropped to 78 incidents from 159, with car thefts and thefts from autos down sharply. Rhode Island Avenue fell to 58 from 156, driven by a drop in thefts from autos, to 14 from 69. Van Ness-UDC fell to 57 from 122, and Farragut North fell to 39 from 99.

Woodley Park’s increase came almost entirely from thefts, which rose to 161 from 97. It recorded two violent incidents this year.

Inside the system

The Metro Transit Police Department publishes its own monthly figures for crimes on trains, buses, platforms and parking lots across the regional system, including in Maryland and Virginia. Its September 2026 report shows serious crime down this year.

Through September, MTPD recorded 592 Part 1 crimes systemwide, down from 656 in the first nine months of 2025. Aggravated assaults fell to 85 from 114, and robberies fell to 137 from 171. Motor vehicle thefts, mostly from Metro parking lots, rose to 132 from 125. Crimes on the rail system were nearly flat, at 387 compared with 392. Crimes on buses fell to 91 from 118.

Lower-level offenses rose on the system. Fare evasion offenses increased to 18,535 from 16,724, and trespassing to 376 from 264. Simple assaults were flat, at 1,015 compared with 1,019. MTPD labels its figures preliminary.

The two sets of numbers measure different things and are not directly comparable. MPD’s data covers the streets around stations. MTPD’s covers the system itself, across three jurisdictions, using different offense definitions.

Limits of the data

MPD’s public incident data reflects crimes as reported and classified when the data was published. Classifications can change after investigation. The data includes only nine offense categories and does not include simple assaults, weapons offenses or most drug crimes. Locations are generalized to the block. An incident recorded at a nearby block may have happened farther from or closer to the station entrance than the 250-meter measure suggests.

The analysis does not adjust for ridership or foot traffic. Station areas like Columbia Heights and Metro Center draw large crowds, and more people can mean more reported theft. The analysis also cannot say whether any crime involved Metro riders.

The Inquisitor is seeking comment from WMATA and the Metro Transit Police Department, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety and its Committee on Transportation and the Environment, and the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District.