NYC Murders, Rapes Up Even As Crime Drops Overall: NYPD

NEW YORK, NY — New York City saw more murders and rapes last month than a year ago even as police recorded the safest April ever, city officials said Tuesday. Some 22 murders were reported last month, up slightly from 21 last year, while the number of reported rapes spiked 44.5 percent to 172, the NYPD said.

Those figures contrasted with a 3.8 percent overall drop last month in the seven most serious crimes — murder, rape, robbery, grand larceny, felony assault, burglary and car theft — compared with April 2017.

"The NYPD continues to innovate, continues to work even harder to drive down crime," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Last month's increase in murders was concentrated in the Bronx, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock said. She added that gang activity is driving murders recently.

April marked the eighth straight month in which reported rapes increased from the prior year. NYPD officials have attributed the spike to the #MeToo movement encouraging sex crime survivors to report what happened to them.

Car thefts also increased 13.8 percent to 403 in April from 354 last April, and felony assaults stayed flat at 1,556, officials said.

But robberies in April dropped to 900 from 1,050 last year and the number of shootings fell for the third straight month to 49 — half as many as April 2012, officials said. Burglaries and grand larcenies also decreased.

Murders are down more than 9 percent and shootings are down nearly 11 percent so far this year compared with the same period last year, de Blasio said.

"We had a record year last year, we're still ahead of pace this year compared to last year," de Blasio, a Democrat, said.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)