Crime Rates at Historic Lows, NYC Officials Say

by Rebecca Lewis | 12/02/2014 | 5:49pm

Crime Rates at Historic Lows, NYC Officials Say

Overall crime is down over four percent since this time last year.

The city's latest crime numbers are out, and officials say they continued to go down since last year's record lows. Mayor de Blasio said to keep the city safe, he had a lot to live up to when he entered office last January.

"People always talked about last year. Last year was an amazing year in this city in terms of bringing down crime. The goal was to do better," de Blasio said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced that since January, overall crime is down just over four percent. That's 45,000 fewer crimes this year than last year. Homicides are down nearly seven percent, with 21 fewer murders. And there were 2,600 fewer robberies this year, a whopping 14 percent lower than last year. In addition, arrests were also up from last year, with 2,200 more.

Looking at crime rates since 1993, when modern crime statistics began, the city says there have been dramatic decreases. Overall crime is down 75 percent, homicides are down 83 percent and robberies are down 80 percent. And August to November this year had the lowest number of shootings and homicides for that four month period since 1993.

De Blasio also reaffirmed his commitment to improving police-community relations as the city waits for a grand jury decision in the police chokehold death of Eric Garner.

"We have to approach policing in a different and better way. We have to bring police and community closer together," de Blasio said.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams applauded the mayor's efforts, pointing to positive changes made to stop and frisk since last year.

"We had a policy, previously, that was focused on stopping black guys and not bad guys," Adams said.

Mayor de Blasio said stop and frisk incidents are down 79 percent since he took office.

In addition, low-level marijuana arrests- which disproportionately affect minority men- have decreased 61 percent since the de Blasio administration's new policy was launched last month.

De Blasio also announced that later this week, the NYPD will begin equipping police officers in PSA 2, the 40th Precinct and the 120th precinct with body cameras to monitor their conduct. These precincts have had the highest stop and frisk rates.

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