Safe at home

City on pace to hit historic low in murders in ’17

MURDERS IN New York City are on track to hit another historic low, according to NYPD statistics for the first eight months of the year.

The city has seen 179 homicides this year as of Sept. 1 — a 22.5% drop compared to the 231 homicides in the same period in 2016, the Daily News has learned.

If the trend continues through New Year’s Eve, the city could be on track to shatter the record low of 333 set in 2014.

In early August, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Dermot Shea estimated that the year-end total would be “somewhere around 300.”

Based on the current murder rate, the Daily News estimates the total could be even lower — about 268.

By contrast, the number of homicides in 1990 was about eight times higher, topping out at a grim 2,262.

And Chicago — a city one-fourth the size of New York with 2 million people — had reported 452 murders and 1,930 shootings through Aug. 27.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill is preparing to formally release the crime stats at a briefing Tuesday.

The number of shootings is down 22.9% as of Friday, dipping to 523 this year, compared to 678 in the same span last year.The city ended 2016 with a record-low 998 shootings.

Overall, major crimes are down 6.3% — 63,157 in 2017 compared to 67,435 in the same period in 2016.

“Through seven months, we are on pace to finish the year potentially under 100,000 index crimes, and that would be the first time that that’s occurred,” Shea said Aug. 3.

Police brass have touted the department’s improved outreach to the community, and an emphasis on targeting street crews and repeat offenders, for the sharp drop in shootings.

Still, John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD cop, cautioned against giving the department too much credit for the drop in murders.

“The fact that it’s happening is way more important than why,” he said. “The ‘why’ is debatable. The reality is, the city is supersafe at this point, and it’s spectacular news.”