NYC sees historic drop in crime
New York City was celebrating an historic drop in crime as the city on Wednesday released annual figures at a ceremony at the Brooklyn Museum.
Overall, reported crimes were down 4.1 percent, from 105,921 in 2015 to 101,606 last year, according to NYPD. The 2016 figure represented the fewest crimes ever reported in the modern crime-reporting area, the police agency said.
The news was good almost across the board: Murders down 4.8 percent from 352 in 2015 to 335 last year; rape down 1% from 1,450 in 2015 to 1,436 last year; robberies down 8.7 percent from 16,971 in 2015 to 15,489 last year. The only reported figure that was up was felonious assault, which rose 2.1 percent from 20,375 to 20,807, the NYPD reported.
"2016 was the safest year ever in the history of New York City," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said. "We have been working hard at reducing crime to historic lows, when many said it could not be done."
"This is an amazing moment for New York City," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "Crimes are being stopped before they happen because the focus is on the right people and the right places."
Along with the other positive numbers, New York also saw its fewest ever annual shootings last year, the mayor said. The figures also reflected the fewest ever robberies and burglaries in a single year, de Blasio said.
"None of this happened by accident," O'Neill said. "We've zeroed in on the relatively small population of people who commit most of the violent crime in our city. We are picking them off one by one or, in many cases, dozens by dozens."
Officials credited a big push over the last year and a half on neighborhood policing and a reworking of how detectives are organized, allowing detectives to compare notes and focus on the small group of people committing most of the violent crimes. Many of shootings were gang-related, and detectives focused on the circle of gang members doing most of the shooting, Robert Boyce, NYPD chief of detectives, said.
The efforts to boost community policing included more neighborhood meetings hosted by police, during which police would explain their presence, who they arrested and why, according to O'Neill.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams noted that the crime reductions happened even as the city cut down on its controversial stop-and-frisk policy, which allows officers to stop anyone they deem suspicious. Opponents complained the policy allowed police to wrongly target to many minorities, while proponents said it was a necessary crime deterrent.