A city ever safer

Even after years of crime declines that have utterly transformed New York City, the record 2017 is about to set remains nothing short of astonishing. Barring the unthinkable, the five boroughs will end the year having lost fewer people to murder than the previous recent low of 333, set in 2014, and indeed fewer than at any time since records began more than a half century ago.

As of Wednesday, this city had seen just 288 murders, versus dozens more at this time last year. Other major crimes, from felony assault to burglary, are on similarly sharp trajectories down. Even public housing is at long last seeing crime declines.

This city’s fresh achievement speaks to the shining leadership of Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill, who has built on the strides made by his predecessor Bill Bratton in targeting highcrime locations, busting gangs with the help of social media and deploying new technologies, such as ShotSpotter, to fine-tune response.

So great were such strides that when the NYPD sharply cut back on its excessive use of stop, question and frisk, it had no impact on safety. Neither has the rapid reduction in the number of inmates at Rikers Island and other city jails, now under 9,000 on a typical day — the fewest in a generation.

With the benefit of beefed-up numbers of officers, O’Neill has since advanced community policing that brings New Yorkers back toward trusting relationships with local officers they know they can call on.

Mayor de Blasio wisely empowered both, and shielded the NYPD from pressures to roll back policing to the barest as a supposed scourge on black and Latino communities — understanding full well that it is those same communities which are counting on the police as partners to keep them safe.

O’Neill in this, his first full year as commissioner, deserves all the more honor for having achieved further crime drops despite some blasting headwinds.

Not least: The deadliest terrorist attack this city has seen since 9/11, of eight murdered on Manhattan’s West Side bike path. At our peril does this city take for granted just how many lives the NYPD has saved in thwarting planned attacks before sick acolytes of ISIS and terror networks ever strike.

Opioid addiction remains a scourge, tied to larceny, trafficking and other crimes. Overdose deaths don’t count in the crime stats but sear the city and continue to challenge the police.

So does untreated mental illness, which constantly calls cops to the scene of crises and violence in lieu of psychiatric professionals. Improved police training eases but does not end the likelihood that some desperately ill people will die in such confrontations.

One sych sick person murdered one of the NYPD’s own, Miosotis Familia.

At constant risk to themselves, in the face of continued attempts to needlessly limit their power to police, the brave men and women of the NYPD press on night and day to keep the city safe. Bless each and every one of them.