New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says 2018 crime stats show overall improvements from the previous year.
For the second year in a row, Mayor de Blasio says New York City experienced less than 300 homicides.
“Less than one homicide a day in this city and we intend to go farther. It’s extraordinary what has been achieved,” de Blasio said.
Overall arrests are down 37 percent since de Blasio took office.
“You don’t have a mass incarceration crisis if people aren’t being unnecessarily arrested,” de Blasio said.
But domestic violence saw a slight increase in New York City, so did reports of rape. Mayor de Blasio suggests the MeToo movement likely played a role in the uptick.
“We’re dealing with a new reality that we talked about many a time in these settings, where the advocates and the NYPD believe the same thing based on the information they have. That a historic underreporting is finally being addressed,” de Blasio said.
Chief Crime Control Strategist Lori Pollack says 2018 set several record lows.
“We are at record lows for murder, shootings, robbery, burglary, GLA, and overall index crime. Overall crime is at a record low. For the first time in the CompStat era we have recorded below 96,000 index crime.”
Police Commissioner James O’ Niell says trust from the community has played a heavy role in keeping numbers down.
“Every day the cops are out here with people building bonds,” O’Niell said. They continue to take illegal guns and drugs off of the street. Today we are chronicling what was another truly remarkable year city wide in 2018 in terms of how the NYPD and all of the people we serve gauge our city’s safety.”
No NYD officers were lost in the line of duty in 2018.