February sets the record for fewest crimes
LAST MONTH was the safest February in New York City in over 20 years — although murders for the year have increased slightly, police said Wednesday.
As February came to a close, NYPD detectives were investigating 42 murders, compared to 40 by this time in 2016, representing a 5% bump.
Shootings so far this year are down by nearly 15%, to 99, from last year’s 116 during the same period.
“It always concerns us when there’s an uptick in murders,” Mayor de Blasio said at the monthly crime stats meeting on Wednesday. “We take that seriously, but thank God, overall (it’s) still a low number.” Last month, there were 40 shootings with 44 people shot. That represents a 36% drop from the 62 shootings for February of last year, when 77 people were victimized. The mayor called the decline “extraordinary.”
“All these pieces are adding up,” de Blasio said. “There are 2,000 more officers on the streets today than there were just a couple years ago. That’s also an X factor that’s going to have an increasingly large impact on our ability to reduce crime.”
Police Commissioner James O’Neill (photo) said the NYPD conducted about 100 targeted takedowns last year, resulting in about 1,000 arrests.
“Many of those people are still locked up, which is exactly where they need to be,” he said. “This is how we’re reducing the number of shootings, the number of homicides, and this is how we continue to take guns off the streets.”
There were 85 rapes last month, which marks a 21% drop compared to February 2016, when there were 108.
Felony assaults — 1,287 last month — were also down, an 8% drop from the 1,400 the previous February.
Robberies saw a 13% decline, from 1,113 to 965. There were 14% fewer burglaries, with 878 this year compared to 1,020 in February last year.
Grand larceny was down 8% and grand larceny auto was down 4%.
O’Neill credited neighborhood and precision policing for the positive trend.
“In reality, it’s really a very small percentage of people in this city committing the bulk of violent crime,” he said. “With precision policing, we’re identifying those people — the small groups, gangs and crews — and we’re taking them out.”