The city of Baltimore logged seven homicides in August, the fewest in that month in at least five decades, records show.

Part of a national trend that has been especially prevalent here, Baltimore is now in its third consecutive year of steep declines in homicides and nonfatal shootings.

There have been 91 homicides so far this year, compared to 129 through the same period a year ago, according to police. In 2022, the last year the city tallied more than 300 killings, there had been 241 homicides through the first eight months. August is historically violent, with the city having averaged more than 23 homicides during that month since 1970, data shows.

City and state political figures pointed to August’s figures as proof of the efficacy of their crime-fighting strategies. Mayor Brandon Scott praised the joint work of his office, the Baltimore Police Department, State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Gov. Wes Moore as the reason for the decline. Scott and Moore are Democrats.

“We are all in this together,” Scott said in a statement. “Only together can we continue to build on and sustain these achievements.”

Carter Elliott, Moore’s campaign press secretary, posted online that “Homicides are DOWN 62% right now in BALTIMORE.”

Both Moore’s and Scott’s camps have sought to draw attention to the reductions as President Donald Trump has been quick to characterize Maryland’s largest city as “crime-drenched,” a “hellhole” and a “horrible deathbed.”

Trump, a Republican who has sought to draw urban violence into the mainstream of political discourse, has threatened to deploy the National Guard and potentially even active-duty troops to Democratic-controlled cities as a means to curb what he considers to be out-of-control crime.

The president has flooded neighboring Washington, D.C., with federal agents and Guard members from Republican-led states. He claimed on his Truth Social platform on Sunday that the District of Columbia was now “crime-free,” and added, “Wouldn’t it be nice to say that about Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and even the Crime Drenched City of Baltimore? It can happen, and it can happen FAST! Work with us!!”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said last week that the surge of federal law enforcement has reduced crime, but many residents and other elected officials view the tactics as an overreach and consider the presence akin to a military occupation of the nation’s capital.