NYC Boasts Drop In Major Crime At City Schools

NEW YORK CITY, NY – City officials on Tuesday released figures showing major crime at schools was the lowest it’s been in a decade in the 2016-17 academic year.

The latest school year saw an 18 percent decrease in major crime compared to the 2014-15 year, according to City Hall, the NYPD and the Department of Education.

“This is a whole new reality of a kind of safety we’ve never seen before,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a Tuesday press conference.

Major crimes include assault, robbery and burglary, along with murder and rape.

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Schools saw 503 total incidents of major crime in the latest school year, down from 532 the year before, according to the NYPD. Crimes during the 2016-17 academic year included 263 grand larcenies, 139 assaults, 60 robberies, 37 burglaries, four rapes and no murders, the data showed.

City Hall sought to cast the 2016-17 school year as the “safest school year on record.” But when questioned at a Tuesday press conference, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said officials began tracking major crime at schools in 2006, meaning the recent data show schools are the safest they’ve been in a decade.

The de Blasio administration has overseen a range of controversial policies in addressing school safety. In February, the mayor expanded a program that lets police issue teens summonses instead of arresting them for small quantities of marijuana, among other steps aimed at keeping students out of jail.

Lead image by AP.