Opinion: Black Leadership is Making Cities Safer, But You Hear About it in the News

Chicago and Baltimore just posted numbers that should be front-page news. They’re not. We need to talk about why.

In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson just wrapped up three years in office during which homicides hit their lowest point in 60 years. Robberies are down 36%. Carjackings have been cut in half. Under Police Superintendent Larry Snelling, the homicide clearance rate hit 77%, the best it’s been in over a decade.  How did he do it?  Johnson didn’t just add police. He doubled the number of mental health crisis responders and expanded youth summer employment, making a direct investment in curing the root causes of crime – instead of just putting bandages on its symptoms.

In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott — a man who grew up being handcuffed by police for what he calls “breathing while Black” — delivered the largest year-over-year homicide drop ever recorded in that city – 133 homicides in 2025, the fewest in nearly 50 years. That was the culmination of three straight years of double-digit declines. His Group Violence Reduction Strategy, built in partnership with State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, gives people at the highest risk a real choice: job training and mentorship, or accountability.

Two of our cities. Black mayors. Historic turnarounds. So why haven’t we heard about this the same way we’d hear about a single carjacking or robbery?  We already know the answer.

The research supports what we already feel in our bones. Gallup calls it “local positivity bias” — national media highlights the rare and the violent while burying the actual trend line.  Studies show suspects who look like us get news coverage far outpacing our actual share of crime and arrests, and that heavy news coverage alone increases negative associations of Black people, no matter what a viewer believed walking in.

That’s not accidental storytelling. That’s intentional indoctrination.  Bad news about our people and our cities has been profitable for decades. Good news about our leadership solving the problem doesn’t fit that narrative, so it doesn’t make the cut.

But the numbers don’t need network ratings to be true. Two Black mayors, backed by Black leadership and community partners who never stopped showing up, took cities the country loves to write off and made them measurably safer. That’s not a fluke. That’s a blueprint. And it deserves the same headlines as every story that tried to convince us that these cities – and our people inhabiting them – were beyond saving.

Randi Bryant is an author, entrepreneur, activist, and avid traveler. Find her as Randi B on all social platforms.