NYC sheds bad reputation as murders plunge

Fewer people have been murdered in New York in 2017 than in any year since the

1950s, according to preliminary figures from the city’s police department.

A total of 2245 killings were recorded in the city at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in 1990. By 2000, the number had fallen to

673, and last year it was down to

329. In the year to Christmas Day, the figure was expected to be less than 300.

The falling murder rate in New York contrasts sharply with those in a few smaller American cities.

Baltimore, which has a population of just over 600,000 compared with New York’s 8 million, has recorded 343 killings this year, setting an American record for murders per head of population, according to The Baltimore Sun.

New York’s total of 286 as of yesterday is being hailed as the lowest since reliable records began, or at least since 1956.

Other crimes fell sharply, too, with the exception of some sexual offences, continuing a steady decline that began in the early

1990s.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department said senior officials were reluctant to comment on the falling murder rate until after the end of the year, when the figures would be confirmed.

However, James O’Neill, named as head of the department last year, has credited the police tactic of targeting a small number of people thought to be responsible for most of the crime, while seeking to mend frayed relations between the police and residents in some neighbourhoods.

Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, concurred: ‘‘The

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police department has employed precision policing, focusing on the individuals most at risk of committing violent crimes.’’

He said officers making contacts with leaders in neighbourhoods where relations with the police had been strained, and close co-operation between the department and city prosecutors, had also helped, as had ‘‘an unrelenting focus on illegal guns’’.

A network of audio sensors called ShotSpotter has been used in patches of the city that had recorded higher rates of gun crime, to alert police to gunfire. Shootings, which spiked during the last northern summer, have plummeted.

An increase in the number of complaints of some sexual misdemeanours appears to have coincided with the Harvey Weinstein scandal, in which the Hollywood mogul and other leading figures in public life have been accused of sexual harassment.

The falling murder statistics will strengthen the hand of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who came to power promising to reduce the police tactic of stopping and frisking people on the street.

‘‘De Blasio blew up the narrative,’’ Aborn said. ‘‘The narrative was that crime in New York would soar again and mayhem would reign.’’

Instead, the falling murder rate had coincided with the lowest number of arrests in 20 years and fewer people being jailed, he said.

Some criminologists are asking just how low crime rates can fall, while continuing to argue about the causes. Many believe that the city’s thriving economy and low unemployment rate have had a far greater impact on recorded crime rates than the actions of the police.

– The Times