New York City is making waves: Crime plummets in Queens, city

New York City

When the final crime statistics come in next week, New York City is expected to see the fewest number of murders since the city began keeping statistics in 1963. Overall crime is down nearly 11 percent throughout the city with Queens crime seeing a 10 percent decrease compared to last year’s numbers.

“The numbers are staggering: since 2001, we’ve driven murder down by 29 percent, rape down by 38 percent, robbery down by 34 percent – the list goes on,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made the announcement during the Monday, December 28, NYPD graduation ceremony where 250 police officers were installed.

NYPD crime statistics through December 27 of this year showed that 461 murders took place in New York City compared to 516 that took place during the same period last year. This year is expected to mark the eighth year in a row where murders were under 600 – something that had not happened during a single year since the 1960s.

In Queens, overall crime in Patrol Borough Queens North and Patrol Borough Queens South dropped by nearly 10 percent – similar to the reductions throughout the city.

Patrol Borough Queens South saw a nearly 28 percent drop in murders through December 27 compared with this time last year. Patrol Borough Queens South was one of the few areas where the murder rate soared in 2008, causing local legislators and residents to express concern about the spike in violent crime.

“I’m in general grateful for all of the proactive efforts of Patrol Borough Queens South and their commanding officers for trying to reduce crime, increase contacts in the community and develop more links with the youngsters in the community,” said City Councilmember Leroy Comrie, who represents neighborhoods in southeast Queens.

Comrie specifically credited the work of Thomas V. Dale, the Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Queens South, who Comrie said has done a great job with limited resources, a sentiment echoed by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.

“While we would like to have more officers on the streets we are gratified that every Queens Precinct saw a crime decrease,” Marshall said in a statement. “The number of murders in Queens has decreased from 95 to 79 but any murder is one too many. We still need to get all illegal guns off our streets and that is a task that our communities must share with our Police Department.”

Meanwhile, leaders also said that the reduction in crime citywide this year was even more impressive considering the downturn in the economy, which has often yielded upticks in violent crime.

“The conventional wisdom is that when the economy suffers crime goes up, but we’ve never accepted that premise,” Bloomberg said. “Despite the downturn, New York City – already the safest big city in the nation – became even safer in 2009, and we’re committed to building on our progress in 2010.”

 

I was stunned to see this: New York City's crime rate drops 11% since last year, on target for record low

New York

Daily News Staff Report

Monday, December 28th 2009, 2:29 PM

Worms in the Big Apple

Do you consider New York a safe city?

The city's murder rate is on target to be at a record low - and the overall crime rate keeps plummeting, too, officials said Monday.

New figures show the murder rate and overall crime rate each dropped 11% from last year. The only major crime that went up was felony assault, which rose 2%.

Officials said there were 461 murders in the city thru Sunday, compared to 516 in the same period last year.

Mayor Bloomberg said the figures mark the 19th straight year in which major felony crime declined.

"The numbers are staggering," the mayor told the city's  new graduating class of police recruits.

"Since 2001, we've driven murder down by 29%, rape down by 38%, robbery down by 34% - the list goes on.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said crime dropped in every borough and in nearly every category.

The projected homicide rate would be the lowest since comparable records were kept beginning in 1963.

Yes, it's true: New York City crime rates at record low: police

New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) - This year has been the safest in New York City in more than four decades, with the murder rate down to levels not seen since the early 1960s, police said on Monday.

U.S.

As of Sunday, 461 murders had been committed, down from 516 in 2008 and the lowest number since comparable record-keeping began in 1963, the New York Police Department said.

Nationwide, statistics suggest the United States will have seen a drop in violent crime for a third year in a row. Last week, the FBI reported violent crime, including murder and robbery, dropped 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009.

The FBI also said New York was the safest U.S. big city in 2009.

Crime in New York has been falling for several years in a decline widely attributed to a "broken windows" strategy of no tolerance for even the smallest infraction and the system of identifying and addressing problem areas.

In announcing the 2009 statistics, Mayor Michael Bloomberg also gave credit to his efforts to clamp down on illegal guns.

This was "a year for the record books," Bloomberg said.

Rape, robbery and burglary rates were down from 2008 but felony assaults ticked up 2 percent, police said.

The announcement came as the police department inducted 250 new officers into the force, one of the smallest batches of new hires in recent memory, spokesman Paul Browne said.

The number of New York police officers is about 34,000, down from 40,800 in 2001, a span of time in which crime rates have fallen, police said.

(Reporting by Basil Katz; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Bill Trott)