The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Heavy police presence during last week’s Republican National Convention appears to have impeded crime throughout the city, police said.
Overall crime was 6 percent lower for the week of Aug. 30 to Sept. 5 than it was during the same period last year, according to weekly police statistics released Monday. Citywide shootings decreased 15 percent, and overall crime dropped 7 percent in Brooklyn.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the statistics “quite amazing.”
“One of our objectives was to keep all the boroughs safe, and I think the NYPD did that,” he said Monday.
About 10,000 police officers were deployed to Madison Square Garden - the site of the convention - subways and other events during the convention’s run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
Some 1,800 protesters were arrested, mostly on misdemeanor charges, but there were few reports of convention-related violence.