Safest August in Recorded History for Subway Crime, Excluding Pandemic Years
Record-Low Number of Burglaries for August, Retail Theft Declines by 22%
Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch today announced that in the first eight months of 2025, New York City saw the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history. During the eight-month stretch, the city recorded 489 shooting incidents and 611 shooting victims, compared to the previous all-time lows of 502 and 612 in 2018. The historically low shooting numbers helped drive declines in major crime, with a 6.7% overall drop in August 2025 when compared to the same time last year.
Crime has consistently declined each quarter since January 2024, with the city currently in its seventh straight quarter of major crime decline. This past August was the safest August on record for subway crime, excluding the COVID-period of 2020-2021, and year-to-date, transit robberies are at the lowest levels in recorded history. Burglary was at a record low for the month of August and retail theft declined by a significant 22%.
“In the first eight months of the year, the NYPD drove down shooting incidents and shooting victims to the lowest levels in our city’s history,” said NYPD Commissioner Tisch. “Below ground on our subways, we have cut crime down to record-lows, excluding the pandemic years. Our focus has been on taking illegal guns off the streets, arresting violent gang members, and deploying our most valuable resource — the men and women of the NYPD — on foot posts where they are most needed, and the results are clear: Our strategy is working, and our cops are driving down crime.”
“As August closed, we continued to break more records: shooting incidents and shooting victims for the first eight months of the year were at their lowest levels in recorded history, and crime in our subways in August was at the lowest in recorded history,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “But even with the tremendous steps we’ve taken in making our city safer, we know that one crime is still one crime too many, and a number of heartbreaking incidents remain at the forefront of people’s minds. We see so much promise in New York City, and it is readily apparent that our public safety plan is working. We will continue to make adjustments as we see spikes, but thanks to the brave men and women of the NYPD, New York continues to be America’s safest big city.”
The NYPD celebrated the hiring of nearly 1,100 police officer recruits in August, marking the largest class of officers sworn in by the NYPD since January 2016. So far this year, the NYPD has hired 2,911 recruits — the highest number since 2006 — with another class still scheduled for this year. In 2025, the department is on pace to hire the greatest number of new NYPD officers in recorded history.
The NYPD’s successful recruitment campaign supported the department’s precision policing efforts this summer. On May 5, the NYPD deployed a Summer Violence Reduction Plan across 72 zones covering 59 communities with more than 2,000 uniformed officers assigned to nightly foot posts in precincts, public housing, and the subway system — all focused on high-priority crimes and shootings. The plan has resulted in consistent crime declines this summer, with major crime down 19%, shootings down 51%, felony assaults down 25%, and robberies down 23% in these zones during deployment hours.
Targeted gang takedowns continue to play a major role in driving down violence and removing guns from the street. So far this year, NYPD detectives have carried out a record-high 55 gang-related takedowns — arresting 396 gang members and associates.
In August, citywide burglary declined by 18.9% (963 vs. 1,187) and is down for the third consecutive year.
Retail theft is also down 12% year-to-date, and 22% in the month of August. Significantly, NYPD officers made more than 2,200 shoplifting arrests last month alone, and more than 19,000 arrests citywide so far this year.
This sea change is the direct result of the department’s overhaul of its approach to combating retail theft, including:
- Deploying officers on foot posts in high propensity locations during the windows of time when retail theft is most likely to occur;
- Placing special emphasis on investigating petit larceny;
- Establishing patterns and identifying recidivists;
- Creating tight coordination with transit officers who catch shoplifters fleeing in the subways; and
- Placing special emphasis on this crime and these cases at weekly CompStat meetings.
In the month of August, robbery dropped by 8.2% (1,365 vs. 1,487), felony assault was down by 6.6% (2,441 vs. 2,614), and grand larceny decreased by 4.2% (4,202 vs. 4,384). Grand larceny auto declined 3.7% (9,204 vs. 9562) year-to-date.
The NYPD brought crime down in the transit system by 22.4% (156 vs. 201) in August. So far this year, overall crime in the subway is at its lowest levels in recorded history, excluding the two pandemic years when transit ridership was artificially depressed.
Housing crime declined by 8.8% (485 vs. 532) for the month. Year-to-date, murders are at their lowest level ever across housing, down 22.6% (22 v. 30).
The number of incidents investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force decreased by 35%.
In August, the city recorded 77 shooting incidents, a 4% increase compared to last August’s record setting lows. However, August 2025 was still the third lowest for shooting incidents in recorded history. Over the past three and a half years, the NYPD has taken more than 23,445 illegal guns off our streets, including more than 3,685 seized in 2025 alone. In the month of August, murder increased 33% (28 vs. 21) but remains down 19.6% year-to-date compared to the same period last year.
Rape incidents increased by 24% in August compared to the same period in 2024 (160 vs. 129). The rise in reported incidents is partly attributed to September 2024’s legislative changes broadening the legal definition of rape in New York State, which now includes additional forms of sexual assault. Many reported cases involved individuals known to each other. The NYPD continues to encourage survivors of sexual assault to come forward and report these incidents.
*All crime statistics are preliminary and subject to further analysis, revision, or change. *
Index Crime Statistics: August 2025
|
| 28 | 21 | 7 | 33.3% |
| 160 | 129 | 31 | 24% |
| 1365 | 1487 | -122 | -8.2% |
| 2441 | 2614 | -173 | -6.6% |
| 963 | 1187 | -224 | -18.9% |
| 4202 | 4384 | -182 | -4.2% |
| 1342 | 1429 | -87 | -6.1% |
| 10501 | 11251 | -750 | -6.7% |
Additional Statistics: August 2025
|
| 156 | 201 | -45 | -22.4% |
| 485 | 532 | -47 | -8.8% |
| 77 | 74 | 3 | 4.1% |
Hate Crime Statistics: August 2025
(Representing August 1 – August 31 for calendar years 2025 and 2024)
| Motivation | 2025 | 2024 | +/- | % Change |
|---|
Age | 0 | 3 | -3 | -100% |
Asian | 2 | 3 | -1 | -33% |
Black | 2 | 3 | -1 | -33% |
Ethnic | 2 | 6 | -4 | -67% |
Gender | 1 | 2 | -1 | -50% |
Hispanic | 0 | 1 | -1 | -100% |
Jewish | 19 | 16 | 3 | 19% |
Muslim | 2 | 13 | -11 | -85% |
Religion | 2 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
Sexual Orientation | 4 | 3 | 1 | 33% |
White | 0 | 1 | -1 | -100% |
Grand Total | 34 | 52 | -18 | -35% |
Note: Statistics above are subject to change upon investigation, as active possible bias cases may be reclassified to non-bias cases and removed from counted data.
