URBANA. Ill. (WCIA) — The Urbana Police Department has released updated statistics on crime since the start of the year. While crime as a whole is down, officials reported a staggering 600% increase in homicides from the same period last year.

The data was recorded between the dates of Jan. 1 and May 17 and shows a total of 654 instances of violent crime and property crime. During the same time period the year prior, there were 728 instances — a decrease of 10%.

However, where there was one homicide between Jan. 1 and May 17 of 2024, there have been seven in 2025. Urbana Police clarified that some of these homicides were caused by people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

But all other main categories of crime were down, with only three sub-categories seeing slight increases since last year:

Urbana Police also broke the data down by the city’s seven wards. Overall, Ward 5 had the highest amount of crime with 224 incidents — representing one-third of the city’s crime — and a 2% increase compared to last year.

But Ward 6, with only 11% of the city’s crime, had the highest increase from the year before, by 10%.

Ward 1 had the lowest overall amount of crime with only 19 incidents total and one of the biggest decreases (34%) compared to last year. Ward 7, however, had the largest decrease from the year before with 37%.

Maps below from the Urbana Police department show where violent crime, property crime, and gun instances happened across the city.