By DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK- Murders in New York dropped in 2005 to their lowest point in about 40 years, but the city still couldn’t shake its title as the American metropolis with the most murders.
Through Friday, this city of 8.1 million people had experienced 537 homicides, leaving it likely to finish the year with its fewest killings since 1963, according to New York City Police Department statistics.
But the dubious distinction of being a murder capital _ based on overall figures _ is misleading. Viewed on a murder-per-capita basis, New York’s numbers back up Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s oft-repeated boast that it has become “America’s safest big city.”
More than 200 U.S. cities with a population of more than 100,000 now have a higher overall crime rate than Gotham, according to statistics gathered by the FBI.
Compared to 2004, when 572 were reported, the drop in 2005 was a significant improvement _ especially in relation to murders in other major American cities with significantly smaller population levels.
Los Angeles, which has less than half of New York’ population but had the most murders in 2002, reported 480 homicides through Friday. Chicago, which has a little more than a third the population of the Big Apple but held the murder title in 2003, had 444 homicides through Dec. 27, police said.
Analysts say there is no reason why New York should not continue to see its murder levels decline in years to come.
“There are still a lot of places around the globe where 8 million people get along a lot better than they do in New York,” said Andrew Karmen, a John Jay College of Criminal Justice sociology professor and author of the book “New York Murder Mystery: The True Story Behind the Crime Crash of the 1990s.”
“Crime is not always a function of size and density and people being packed in sardines,” Karmen said, adding that it is no longer unrealistic for the city to expect murder rates as low as other world financial capitals, like London and Tokyo.
A decade of study and analysis has failed to produce consensus on the reasons for New York’s turnaround.
Sociologists and economists note the waning of the crack cocaine epidemic and big improvements in the city’s economy since 1990, when New York suffered through 2,245 killings.
Police officials credit the department’s use of statistical analysis to identify crime hot spots. Politicians point to a strategy, embraced by former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, of cracking down on minor offenses like turnstile jumping and public drunkenness.