April 3 (UPI) — New Yorkers generally lived under safer conditions during the first three months of the year than they have at any other time since local police began keeping records.
“Crime and violence reductions are historic,” New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told media during a Thursday news conference.
Shootings are down 23%, and the city posted the second-fewest number of murders than during any other quarter in its recorded history, Tisch said.
The NYPD reported 63 murders during the first quarter versus 95 a year ago for a 35% drop, the New York Post reported.
Shooting events numbered 140 and produced 164 victims, which is down 23% from 182 and 214, respectively, last year.
Rapes are bucking the trend, though, with a 21% increase reported from a year ago.
Tisch attributed the rise to new standards that she said “rightfully redefined and broadened” what the state classifies as rape.
Grand larceny also rose, partly due to an increase in the theft of Honda vehicles because it is easier to clone their key fobs, the NYPD reported.
“We continue to urge Honda, for their customers’ sake, to fix this vulnerability now,” Tisch said.
Tisch became the city’s police commissioner in November and initiated her “quality of life” policing policy by increasing support for neglected programs and tracking response times to emergency calls, the New York Post reported.
She also revised police academy enrollment criteria to put more police on the streets.
