Sheriff's homicides fall in Orange County as Orlando police log two, up from zero

A single shooting can dominate a week of news in Orange County. A full year's count is a steadier measure. Through July, that count points down for the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office reported 14 homicides from January through July 2026, down from 18 over the same months of 2025, according to figures the agency reported under the National Incident-Based Reporting System. That is a drop of 22.2%.

Both years were counted under the same federal reporting system, so the comparison is like for like. The numbers are still small. A few cases in either direction can swing the percentage sharply, and the decline reads best as a slower pace this year, not as a lasting shift.

The chart below tracks the monthly counts for both agencies through July 2026, the last complete month.

How Orange County compares with Florida

Counting per resident lets the sheriff's office territory sit next to the state and the country. From January through July 2026, the sheriff's office had a homicide rate of 1.5 per 100,000 people. Florida's rate over the same months was 1.8 per 100,000 people.

The national rate was higher still, at 2.1 per 100,000 people. That puts the sheriff's office at about 0.8 times the Florida rate and 0.7 times the U.S. rate.

Orlando's count moved the other way

Inside the area covered by the Orlando Police Department, the direction reversed, though on a far smaller base. The department reported zero homicides from January through July 2025 and two over the same months of 2026.

That is an increase of 2 homicides. With counts this low, any single case moves the line, and the change says little on its own about whether violence in the city is shifting.

Measured per resident, the city's figure stayed low. The Orlando Police Department's rate for January through July 2026 was 0.6 per 100,000 people, about 0.3 times the Florida rate and 0.3 times the U.S. rate.

What the count leaves out

These figures cover only the sheriff's office and the Orlando Police Department. Homicides handled by other agencies in Orange County are not part of this comparison.

The count also stops at July. Agencies report some cases late, and figures for August, September and October are not yet complete. The year's final tally for Orange County will depend on those months, which are still being filled in.

About the data

We compared homicides reported by the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department under the National Incident-Based Reporting System for January through July 2026 against the same months of 2025, the most recent complete stretch. Per-resident rates were calculated by summing monthly rates for each agency, Florida and the U.S., and each agency was compared only with the state and the nation. August through October 2026 were left out; late reporting leaves those months incomplete.

• Homicide counts for both agencies are small, so a few cases can produce large percentage swings that do not signal a lasting trend.
• Recent months of crime data are preliminary and can change as agencies submit late reports.
• The figures count reported homicides and say nothing about the circumstances behind them.

National Incident-Based Reporting System: the FBI's system for collecting detailed crime reports from local law enforcement agencies. Homicide rate: the number of homicides measured against the number of residents in an agency's area, which allows places of different sizes to be compared.

Sources

• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Orange County Sheriff's Office: homicide, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 21, 2026. Data
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer: Orlando Police Department: homicide, monthly, 2024-11 to 2026-10, latest period October 2026, released Oct. 15, 2026; retrieved Oct. 21, 2026. Data