Thomas Tracy and John Annese
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — As murders and shootings in New York City continue to drop to record lows, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch on Wednesday announced a new milestone: 1,000 fewer people shot this year than in 2021.
“Incredible stat! As of today, NYC has recorded 1,000 FEWER shooting victims than in 2021. And 235 fewer than last year,” Tisch posted on social media. “Merry Christmas to the men and women of the NYPD who have delivered such an unprecedented reduction in violent crime this year.”
The number of shooting victims so far this year has dropped by 22% so far this year compared to last, with 841 victims through Sunday compared to 1,077 by the same point last year.
Murders are down by 21%, with 297 slayings through Sunday compared with 375 during the same time frame in 2024.
Still, the city has seen increases in some categories of major crime, including a 15% jump in reported rapes, with 1,999 cases compared with 1,728 by this time last year.
Police officials have pointed to legislative changes made a year ago that broadened the legal definition of rape in New York State, which now includes more forms of sexual assault.
Tisch’s comparison to 2021 calls back to the first year of the Adams administration — a year when the city was still reeling from a sharp spike in crime after the 2020 COVID pandemic.
Shootings doubled in 2020 compared with the prior year and killings rose by almost 50%, with those numbers creeping higher still the following year — including 1,828 shooting victims through Dec. 19, 2021, and 464 homicides.
This year’s lows are more in line with the city’s prepandemic crime statistics. In 2019, the city saw 923 shooting victims as well as 319 homicides.
Tisch often touts the NYPD’s precision-policing model, in which the department sends teams of cops to high-crime areas to tamp down the violence, and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office credits its myriad gang takedowns for reducing crime in that borough by taking would-be shooters off the streets.
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