A violent fight broke out downtown and videos of it went viral over the weekend, sparking criticism toward city and law enforcement leaders on how crime is being handled in some of Cincinnati's neighborhoods.
There are dozens of comments on social media in reaction to the video saying that Downtown isn't safe, so I looked at Cincinnati police data on reported crime in that neighborhood to see what the numbers tell us.
Overall, in Downtown through July 27, 2025, there have been 995 crimes reported. That's up from 652 during the same time period in 2024, 518 in 2023 and 590 in 2022, all according to Cincinnati Police Department crime statistics. That's a four-year average of 689 crimes reported by July 27. That makes the number of reported crimes Downtown this year up 31% over the four-year average.
Mayor Aftab Pureval told us that the specific area of Downtown where the fight occurred has had historically low crime rates, but that they will "make changes to how we police in that area" as a result of the incident.
Diving deeper into the types of crimes, theft from auto is the most common reported crime Downtown, with 274 reported instances so far in 2025, while violent crime makes up a much smaller portion of the overall reported crimes. It's four times more likely that a person downtown will see their vehicle broken into than be a victim of a violent crime, according to crimes reported to Cincinnati police.
CPD data shows that this year so far, roughly 6.03% of crimes reported downtown were violent crimes. CPD specifically categorizes violent crime as aggravated assault, homicide, rape, robbery and strangulation.
In the past four years, roughly 5.56% of all crimes reported downtown were considered violent crimes.
Aggravated assaults — meaning an assault either with a weapon, or one that caused "serious physical harm" — comprised even less. Only 2.01% of crimes reported Downtown so far this year fell under that umbrella with 20 aggravated assaults reported so far this year.
In the past four years, 1.98% of crime reported was an aggravated assault, a total of 103 since 2021.
The most committed crimes in downtown Cincinnati over the past four years were also thefts and thefts from auto.
This year so far, 274 people have reported something stolen from their vehicle downtown; In the past four years, 1,107 thefts from auto have been reported. That's 27.54% of downtown crime so far this year and 21.29% of crime in the past four years.
READ MORE:
- Video shows large fight in downtown Cincinnati; Mayor says he's confident 'arrests are forthcoming'
- 'Unacceptable and disgusting behavior' | Cincinnati mayor says he's 'outraged' by violent fight downtown
- 'We're in this together' | Businesses on Fourth Street unite following violent videos in downtown Cincinnati
- Why we aren't showing the violent fight video from downtown
Cincinnati has grappled with increases in crime city-wide since 2020, but data shows the crimes that are increasing aren't violent. As of Cincinnati officials' press conference on July 22, violent crimes had a spike in June but have since been down.
During their now bi-weekly press conference, city officials said data showed a drop in homicides, rapes and robberies over the last 28 days compared to 2024. However, data provided by police showed burglaries and auto thefts have risen.
Still, Cincinnati police have rolled out many measures to help curb any of the crimes being committed in Cincinnati.
CPD's new street crime task force, which was announced last month, has been focused on addressing hot spot areas, where crimes have been more prevalent. Police have also added a detail in one part of Over-the-Rhine, increasing visibility in the afternoons and nights.
Just last week — days before the fight downtown was captured on video — the Cincinnati Police Department announced the launch of a new Drone as First Responder (DFR) program, which aims to use drones to respond first to some reports of crime.
Theetge said the DFR program will start by covering roughly 40% of the city. She said those areas include:
- Price Hill
- OTR
- Queensgate
- West End
- Downtown
- CUF
- Northside
- Spring Grove Village
"But our goal is bold: 90% citywide coverage by the end of 2025," Theetge said on Friday.
