2013 on Track for Fewest Murders Ever Recorded in NYC History (@VladTV)

At a recent NYPD graduation ceremony, NYC’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced some impressive news: The 2013 murder total, through Dec. 27th, was 332, a 20.7% drop from 2012’s total of 419. This is the lowest since the city started keeping track in 1963. Bloomberg bragged, “New York’s crime-fighting strategies have made us America’s safest big city—and one that cities across the globe want to learn from. Twelve years ago, no one thought New York’s crime rate could go any lower. But it did: since 2001, crime has gone down by 32 percent and in a city of 8.4 million people, there have been fewer than 350 homicides.”

He credited the police, telling the graduates it was “largely due to the work of the fine men and women you are about to join.” The drop in murders has been attributed to focusing on youth gangs (Operation Crew Cut), “hot-spot policing” and using technology to spot crime trends.

Check out the statistics in the chart in the above slide.

Source: CBS New York