Results tagged “murderrate”

The City Police Department noted that NYC had seen "325 homicides as of yesterday, putting the city on pace for 457 by year's end," according to the Post. City homicide records are not deemed entirely reliable before the 1960s, and the year is most emphatically not over, but this would be fewer murders than any time since the 1920s. That's right, the Twenties.

The latest NYPD statistics show a rise in crime. The Daily News reports that there were 46 murders through September 28, "compared with 26 through the same date in September 2007." The city has 390 homicides for 2008, compared to the 350 at the same time last year (2007 had 496 homicides--the lowest NYPD-recorded number). Police Commissioner Kelly said the murder rate, even if higher than last year's, would be on track to be the second lowest murder rate, "Would we like to see it lower? Of course. But overall, when you step out and look at the crime picture, it's going very well. " But it's unknown how the economy's decline will contribute to the "crime picture."

Last week, the FBI released its Crime in the United States 2007 statistics, showing that violent crime fell in 2007. However, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly pointed out that NYC was almost entirely responsible for that downward trend. Bloomberg said, "Without the 17 percent decline in murders in New York City, murder nationwide would have been flat, not down" (murders in NYC dropped from 596 in 2006 to 496 in 2007). Also, NYC's drop in robberies contributed to 75% of the nation decline in robberies. NYC is the safest major city, with 2,432.3 crimes per 100,000 people and, out 245 cities with populations over 100,000, NYC was 230th between Santa Clarita, CA and Rancho Cucamonga, CA (most dangerous are Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Phoenix and Philadelphia).