How Baltimore's violent crime rate hit an all-time low: 'This is not magic. It's hard work'

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Drone Search Team is a group of volunteers in British Columbia, Canada that use a combination of indigenous knowledge and drones to search for missing women. Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to be murdered than other women in Canada, and although there is some police help, the lack of progress and transparency drove this group to take the matter into their own hands. The group has varying success in finding evidence that is being used in on-going investigations, but along the way they also provide solace and answers to the families still searching.

Baltimore has dramatically reduced homicides through a multi-pronged approach involving a data-driven Group Violence Reduction Strategy, credible-messenger intervention programs, and aggressive prosecution of illegal gun possession. This has resulted in a record-low murder rate in 2026, with 60 killings recorded through August compared to roughly 220 at the same point four years prior.

Las Rastreadoras de El Fuerte is a group of about 200 members, mostly mothers whose children are among the more than 73,000 people who have disappeared and presumably were murdered in Mexico's long drug war. Las Rastreadoras search the countryside for the unmarked graves of the missing, hoping to find their own children, often finding others'. In six years, they have found 198 bodies, 120 of whom were identified. What began spontaneously as one woman's search, then a group effort, has become a way to heal from the pain of what a psychologist calls "ambiguous loss" as well as an act of political activism.

The use of solitary confinement, or administrative segregation, in prisons is facing pushback across the country. In Alabama, a federal judge tasked the Department of Corrections to investigate how other states are reforming their use of solitary confinement – especially for those with mental health concerns. Recognizing that isolation often leads to increased bad behavior, states such as North Dakota and Colorado have placed stronger limitations on the use and deployment of administrative segregation.

La Ciudad de Las Mujeres or the City of Women was built by displaced women in Colombia. They are the survivors of violence from the Colombian war. “Today the neighbourhood has its own infrastructure, housing almost 500 people with a school, all built by the women.” The organization has also established a credit fund for micro-enterprises, a brick factory, a community restaurant, and a childcare center.

Camden, N.J. disbanded its troubled police department in 2013. It was replaced with a community-oriented team that worked in partnership with surveillance technology, violence interruption programs, youth investment initiatives, and vacant housing rehabilitation efforts, which altogether contributed to an 82% drop in homicides since 2012, including the city's first homicide-free summer (2025) in 50 years.

In Spain, Higueruela transformed wind farm revenues into municipal investments—funding schools, transportation, senior care, and local jobs—which stabilized the town's declining population and created a sustainable economic model that now provides 40% of its annual budget. A key success factor includes allowing the community to negotiate and reject projects that don't serve local interests.

State and County Departments of Transportation are building a second emergency evacuation road for Waikōloa Village (expected to be completed by September 2026 and cost $3.75 million) to provide an additional escape route to residents in one of the highest wildfire-risk areas in the U.S.

To safely get students back into in-person learning environments amid ongoing Russian attacks, the Ukrainian government has prioritized building underground schools, some of which are in repurposed metro stations while others are dedicated shelters attached to existing schools. So far, the country has completed 20 underground schools, with 221 more under construction, but concerns have also been raised about potential corruption among contractors.

Program H is a group educational methodology that works with young men through participatory workshops, role-playing, and debates to reflect on toxic masculinities and promote more equitable attitudes toward gender. It has been implemented in more than 30 countries since 2002, successfully facilitated by males who act as gender equity role models. This story is available in Spanish here: https://solu.news/24kd