Overall Crime in New York City Hits Record Low in 2019

NYPD Launches Youth Forum: New Cross-Agency Initiative to Prevent, Address and Curb Youth Violence

 New York City achieved record low overall index crime in 2019, improving upon last year's records for public safety and crime reduction in the modern era. In 2019, overall crime is lower than in 2018, dropping to a new benchmark of approximately 95,000 incidents – with 872 fewer victims than last year. This achievement comes as the New York City Police Department more effectively responds to an increasing volume of calls for help. Radio runs increased to 6.4 million last year, compared with 4.8 million in 2015, an increase of roughly 1.5 million radio runs citywide. Since 2015, response times for both crimes in progress and critical crimes have dropped 23 and 43 seconds, respectively.

NYPD officers' work continues amid the challenge of new criminal justice reforms whose effects are already taking hold in New York City. There is an uptick in homicides, shootings and robberies and the Department vigorously investigates every act of violence in order to bring justice for victims and ensure public safety for everyone. When there are upticks and concentrated areas of violence, the Department works to swiftly target them through deployment, partnerships with the District Attorneys and preventative measures with the public's help. The NYPD continues to focus with precision on gangs, crews and the drivers of violence, to deepen our Neighborhood Policing philosophy and to engage with the city's youth to improve people's lives, keep guns off the streets and prevent crime from occurring.

NYPD will be announcing a new comprehensive youth strategy in the coming weeks. One component of this effort includes the establishment of a "Youth Forum," a new initiative, based on the CompStat and RxStat models, where NYPD and City agency partners will work together to design the most effective enforcement and prevention strategies to address rising youth crime. Preliminary meetings have been underway with members of District Attorney's Offices, other City agency partners, including the Department of Probation, the New York City Law Department and the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. The official launch of this new partnership will be in January, to be followed by monthly strategy meetings.

"Every man and woman who wears an NYPD uniform is dedicated to serving New Yorkers in every neighborhood and to working around the clock to keep families and individuals safe from the trauma of crime and violence. We will not cede an inch in our mission to vigorously fight and prevent crime while, at the same time, continuing to build trust with the residents of New York who remain our greatest partners in ensuring the highest levels of public safety for all," said Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.

"While crime is at a record low in New York City, there is more work to do to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in their neighborhood. We will continue to use precision policing to target enforcement and deepen our work with communities to fight crime," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "With Commissioner Shea at the helm, I have full confidence the NYPD will continue to make our city even safer."

Key highlights from this month's crime statistics:

• Lowest number of index crimes in the modern era. There were 872 fewer incidents compared to 96,393 in 2018, or -0.9%.
• Murder is up +7.8 (318 vs. 295) in 2019 vs. 2018.
• Citywide shooting incidents are up +2.9 percent (766 vs. 754) when comparing 2019 vs. 2018. There were demonstrable decreases in shootings in the last quarter of 2019, including the lowest number of shootings, 56, in any December since the start of the CompStat era. The number of shootings in the final 6 months of 2019 was the lowest number for any six-month period in the CompStat era.
• Burglaries are down -8.7 percent (10,751 vs. 11,777) and grand larcenies are down -1.2% (43,227 vs. 43,761) when comparing 2019 vs. 2018.
• Overall crime in Transit is down -3.4 percent (2,499 vs. 2,586) when comparing 2019 vs. 2018.
• For 2019, rape decreased by -2.5%. Rape continues to be underreported. If you have been a victim of sexual assault, please come forward. The NYPD's Special Victims Division's 24-hour hotline is 212-267-RAPE (7273).

Hate Crimes as of 1/1/2019 By Motivation

Motivation	2019	2018	Diff	& Change	% of Total
Asian	3	6	-3	-50%	1%
Black	37	44	-7	-16%	9%
Disability	1	0	+1	***.*	0%
Ethnic	5	6	-1	-17%	1%
Gender	13	7	+6	+86%	3%
Hispanic	8	7	+1	+14%	2%
Muslim	14	18	-4	-22%	3%
Other	15	11	+4	+36%	4%
Religion	15	9	+6	+67%	4%
Semitic	234	186	+47	+26%	55%
Sexual Orientation	54	45	+9	+20%	13%
White	29	17	+12	+71%	7%
Grand Total	428	356	+72	+20%	100%

Note: All crime statistics are preliminary and subject to further analysis, revisions, or change.