CIVIC CENTER — Major crime was down slightly this year compared to the previous year, but homicides were up more than 5 percent in 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Monday.
There were 105,336 major crimes in 2015 — which include murders, rapes and felony assault — compared with 107,211 in 2014, and 350 homicides compared with 333 in 2014, officials said during a press conference at police headquarters.
“We did it at the same time as we drew police and community closer together," de Blasio said about the decrease in overall crime. "We said over the last two years we could have a safer city and a fairer city at the same time. These statistics from 2015 prove it. ”
Most homicides were gang-related, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea, and 68 percent of all homicides were by gunfire.
Shootings, though, were down overall, with 1,137 in 2015, compared with 1,172 last year.
Rapes were also up 6 percent, though officials credit that in part to people coming forward to report crimes that had happened in the past.
About 21 percent of rapes reported occurred before 2015, according to Shea.
There were also 48,000 fewer arrests in 2015, the lowest number since 2003. Some of that was credited to the change in laws regarding marijuana possession, which saw 11,000 fewer arrests in 2015.
While arrests were down, only 15 percent of drivers who killed a pedestrian or cyclist were penalized under the new Vision Zero criminal charge, which was designed to reduce traffic fatalities.
Officials said they expected crime to remain low in 2016 with the hiring of 2,000 additional officers.
"Today, we are practicing precision-policing focused on addressing the pockets of crime that remain," Bratton said in a statement, "while exercising discretion in enforcement and reducing the number of enforcement encounters across the city.”
