Steady drop in city crime
THE CITY is on pace to record fewer than 300 murders this year for the first time since the 1950s, police officials said Friday.
The NYPD investigated 238 murders through Thursday, a dip of 18% from the 291 homicides investigated during the same time period last year.
“When we’re talking about being under 300, that’s a significant drop,” said NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Dermot Shea. “One life is important to us — and when you’re taking that kind of quantum leap in reducing homicides for New York City, we’re very proud.”
There were 335 murders across the five boroughs last year. And the city is on pace for about 285 by the end of 2017.
The murder tally for this year includes eight people mowed down on a lower Manhattan bike path on Tuesday. Police said ISIS-loving Sayfullo Saipov was driving a flatbed truck rented from Home Depot when he sped down the bike path for the equivalent of about 14 blocks. Thirteen people were injured.
Shea said the NYPD considered classifying the truck carnage as an act of war, making the murders exempt from the crime stat tally — as police did after 2,753 people were killed in the 2001 terror attack at the World Trade Center. Police brass ultimately decided against it.
As a result, police recorded an atypical 18% spike in slayings in October with 26 murders, compared with 22 in October of last year.
Other cities in recent years have included murders by terrorists in their regular crime stats.
The number of rapes reported in October was up 17% — from 126 to 147 — compared with October of last year. The NYPD attributed the spike to police urging victims to come forward with rape allegations.
“That is something we point to as a positive,” Shea said. “We’re trying to encourage reporting of rape complaints.”
Shea noted that 13% of the rapes reported in October happened more than a year ago. Reported rapes are down 3% for all of 2017 citywide.
Police Commissioner James O’Neill emphasized the bigger picture, focusing on the homicide numbers — often a bellwether of crime. There were 238 murders through Thursday — 53 fewer than during the same time period last year. The 677 shootings so far this year are 195 fewer than last year, a 22% drop.
“It’s remarkable,” O’Neill said. “To have a year like we’re having this year, and we had last year, it’s truly an amazing accomplishment.”
By comparison, Chicago, with a population of 2.8 million compared to the New York City’s 8.5 million, has already logged 580 murders through the end of October, though that’s less than the 644 the Windy City had at the same time last year.
Shea also noted that, barring a dramatic spike, the city for the first time since it began charting crime with its Compstat system more than 20 years ago will record under 100,000 index crimes — a figure that encompasses the seven offenses that comprise the crime rate: murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto.
Asked if the sustained violent crime drop could be linked to any attitudinal changes, O’Neill instead pointed to the NYPD’s approach to crime — which includes working closer with residents to encourage cooperation, focusing on violent gangs and crews and increasing the size of the force.