Major Crime In NYC Hits Lowest Rate Since 1950s, NYPD Says

HARLEM, NY — Major crime in New York City has plummeted to its lowest level in more than half a century, police officials said Monday.

The NYPD reported 263 homicides so far this year as of Sunday night. That's 55 fewer than the same point last year. And there have been 207 fewer shootings — the biggest cause of murders — so far this year.

The city is on track to close the year with so-called major crimes — murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, grand larceny and car thefts — down 5.5 percent from last year. That's the lowest level since the 1950s, police officials said.

“I think working with everyone in this city and working with all our partners, we can keep pushing those numbers down,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said Monday at a news conference at the NYPD's 32 Precinct in Harlem.

Last month was the safest November on record, officials said. The year is likely to end with fewer than 100,000 reported crimes, a milestone for the NYPD, said Chief Dermot Shea, the head of the NYPD's crime control strategies.

Shootings, which have accounted for about half this year’s murders, had dropped 23 percent from last year as of Nov. 30, Shea said.

The other six most serious crimes have each dropped along with murders. Robberies are down 10 percent from last year, car thefts 11 percent, burglaries by 8 percent and assaults by 4 percent, Shea said.

Grand larcenies, which account for 45 percent of all the city’s crimes, are down 3 percent. Rapes are down by 2 percent even after a spike in rape reports and arrests over the last two months, Shea said.

Police brass and Mayor Bill de Blasio again attributed the low crime to the NYPD’s neighborhood policing practices, which emphasize personal relationships between cops and the communities they patrol.

“New Yorkers are understanding that public safety is a shared responsibility,” O’Neill said Monday.

(Lead image: Police Commissioner James O’Neill, center, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, discuss crime statistics at a Harlem news conference on Monday. Photo by Noah Manskar)