NEW YORK CITY — The number of murders and shootings in New York City continued to reach historic lows during the first six months of 2016 even as major crimes overall were up slightly compared with 2015, police said Monday.
There were 53 more serious crimes during the first half of 2016, though shootings, robberies, burglaries and auto theft had their lowest totals since the NYPD started keeping monthly totals in 1993, according to police statistics. There have also been 11 fewer murders this year to date compared with 2015 — 161 to 172.
“We’re looking very, very good,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said at the NYPD’s monthly press briefing.
Overall crime citywide was down 1.4 percent last month, making it the safest June since the NYPD implemented its crime-recording technology, CompStat, in 1995, statistics showed.
Despite an overall decrease in crime, statistics showed that some major crimes, including rape and felony assault, are up slightly in comparison to the same time last year. Still, Bratton asserted that New York is ahead of the curve on a national plane.
“Major crime in America is up dramatically this year,” he said. “The experience in New York is really the exception at this particular time.”
Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea also emphasized that shootings were down by 20 percent compared to the same time last year.
Shea partially credited the drop in shootings to the 1,820 gun-related arrests made so far this year — a 20 percent increase from 2015. This has in turn resulted in 121 fewer gunshot victims in comparison to the same time last year, he added.
Mayor Bill de Blasio attended the briefing and commended Bratton and “the men and women of the NYPD for an extraordinary six months.”
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“This was an ultimate team effort. This model of policing is working more and more,” the mayor said, citing the NYPD’s community policing efforts and newly developed technologies, such as ShotSpotter.
