New York saw 289 homicides in 2018, three fewer than in 2017, setting a new record for the lowest number of murders in the city since the early 1950s, according to figures released Thursday by police.
The number of murders has fallen by nearly 45% over the past ten years. In 1990, a record year on the rise, the city had experienced 2,245 homicides.
After experiencing an 8% increase in the number of murders in the first half of the year, New York recorded a historic end to the year and notably experienced, in mid-October, its first weekend without a shooting in 25 years.
At a press conference Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the work of the police and said the good crime figures in New York were, in part, due to the new community policing strategy put in place in 2015.
Neighborhood Policing consists in particular of assigning police officers to defined areas over time, as well as strengthening links with the population of each district to better identify needs and promote cooperation.
Behind the drop in the number of homicides, as well as the sharp drop in thefts with violence or threats (-7.7%) and car thefts (-4%), two shadows on the table, firstly the jump of 22 , 4% of the number of rapes.
“An act that was so far insufficiently reported is finally addressed,” commented Bill de Blasio, considering that there was a #MeToo effect and that more victims today dared to file a rape complaint.
For him, the increase would therefore not correspond to an upsurge in rapes, but to a better statistical assessment of the phenomenon.
Another downside, the 7% increase in the number of crimes and offenses of a racial, religious or sexual orientation, which the head of the investigation cell, Dermot Shea, estimated at 361 during the press conference.
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