Crime data from the federal government is reported very slowly. Typically, national estimates are published by the FBI in October of the following year. For example, 2024’s data won’t be published till October of this year.
This can be frustrating as a reporter looking to cover recent trends in violent crime, like firearm violence. But there are several organizations focused on making these key figures accessible to the public sooner, such as the Real-Time Crime Index.
Launched in September 2024, the Real-Time Crime Index “seeks to aid the need for a faster understanding of national, state, and local crime trends,” according to its website.
The Index aggregates preliminary monthly crime data from hundreds of local police departments to create a comprehensive and up-to-date view of U.S. crime trends.
Researchers gather data from law enforcement agencies in three ways: aggregated by an agency, from an agency’s publicly available records management system or from a state uniformed crime reporting program.
The Index comes with caveats, as is the case with all crime data. Counts from an agency are a snapshot in time and may be different from what is eventually published by the FBI. Agencies also might report some figures and not others to the FBI, creating a discrepancy. But these differences are mostly minor and likely don’t impact an agency’s overall trend.
As the organization’s website says: “Since national crime estimates take a long time to make, gathering data from hundreds of cities presents an achievable workaround that will highlight trends as they develop without having to wait many months for national data.”
Download the data from here. You can also use the data directly on the Index’s website using the handy visualization found here.