The large image
New York Metropolis made progress on public security in 2025. Shootings and murders fell to historic lows, and most main crime classes declined in comparison with the yr prior. These enhancements replicate beneficial properties within the metropolis’s most severe types of violence.
There may be one other situation additionally that swims towards the final narrative of “crime is falling” and often is the motive why many New Yorkers really feel uneasy. After we take a look at all reported offenses, not simply the seven main crimes, these are about 25% above pre-pandemic ranges and at a stage not seen since no less than 2006, when these crimes had been extra persistently tracked. These crimes — harassment and misdemeanor assault, amongst others — are way more quite a few than main crimes (579,549 vs. 121,756). And they’re extra seen, extra felt in on a regular basis life as a result of not like homicide, which is very concentrated in geography and comparatively uncommon, these are citywide, above and beneath floor. They encompass the punch, the shove and the shout on the road and the subway, and are every day indicators of insecurity.
Understanding the complicated crime image past the well-deserved victory laps round murders and shootings will probably be essential for Mayor Zohran Mamdani if he’s to efficiently translate marketing campaign guarantees into pragmatic insurance policies, together with the deliberate institution of a Division of Group Security. This report first summarizes what occurred in 2025, then examines the important thing nuances beneath headline declines, and at last outlines the traits to observe within the coming years.
2025: safer than 2024, however not but recovered from pandemic highs
In 2025, New York Metropolis skilled modest declines in main crime in comparison with 2024. Totals in most of those classes fell in comparison with 2024, persevering with a downward pattern from the pandemic peak.
Nevertheless, general main crime in 2025 remained considerably increased than it was in 2019, the final full yr earlier than COVID destabilized communities and New York Metropolis, like most U.S. cities, skilled a surge in violent crime from which it’s nonetheless recovering.
Wanting again over the previous 30 years, the steep drop in crime appears definitely worth the moniker of “New York miracle.” It isn’t simply that the sheer variety of crimes dedicated has declined, but additionally that the sorts of crimes New Yorkers undergo most frequently have modified. This horserace-style chart is like watching a film of New York historical past as, for instance, automobile thefts — as soon as so frequent that “Nothing in Car” indicators and Bensi containers marked the tradition of Nineties New York — drop from first to fourth place whereas felony assault climbs from fifth place to grow to be the second most typical main offense.
Shootings and murders fell to historic lows
Some crimes have fallen beneath prepandemic lows. Shootings are at their lowest stage since constant data started in 1993, whereas murders are decrease than they’ve been in yearly because the Nineteen Fifties, apart from 2017 and 2018. Town additionally skilled extra shooting- and murder-free days in 2025 than in any yr since 2019. That is one other, and maybe extra intuitively comprehensible, method to measure security, once more reflecting how a lot deadly violence has declined in New York Metropolis.
An asterisk: New York is recovering extra slowly than different huge cities
Regardless of low murder ranges, New York Metropolis’s discount on this class because the prepandemic interval has been modest in comparison with different giant cities and the nation general.
Since 2019, New York Metropolis has skilled a roughly 3.1% discount in murders — lower than a 3rd of the nationwide decline and smaller than almost all different giant cities. In absolute phrases, New York stays safer than most giant cities. In relative phrases, nonetheless, its restoration has lagged.
Past murders and shootings, most different crimes, particularly assaults, stay above prepandemic ranges
It is usually notable that crime declines weren’t uniform all year long. The most important reductions in comparison with the identical interval in 2024 occurred in January and February. Against this, November and December 2025 recorded increased crime ranges than in 2024, elevating questions on whether or not the downward pattern will proceed into 2026, past the cold-weather months when crime historically declines as individuals keep indoors.
Maybe town’s single most troubling pattern is that felony assaults — outlined as assaults that deliberately trigger severe bodily harm, contain use of a weapon or harmful instrument, or victimize a protected employee or particular person — have been a persistent and rising downside within the metropolis and are the best they’ve been since 1998. It is a vital downside not solely as a result of the crime is fearsome, however as a result of its general numbers are excessive: Felony assaults outnumber murders 97 to 1 (29,841 vs. 309). Complete felony assault counts have risen 84% since 2008, after they had been at their lowest stage, 44% since 2019 and 1.3% between 2024 and 2025.
Misdemeanor assaults, outlined as people who deliberately trigger bodily harm with out use of a harmful weapon, additionally rose yr after yr from 2020 by means of 2024. They declined by 3.3% in 2025 — the primary drop because the pandemic interval started.
Complete assaults, each felony and misdemeanor, remained 23.2% increased in 2025 than they had been in 2019.
Home violence stays a central and infrequently under-recognized driver of great crime. In 2025, 39% of felony assaults had been categorised as home violence, a share in line with current years. And home incidents — these involving members of the identical household or family, together with spouses, intimate companions, dad and mom and kids — additionally accounted for a persistently excessive share of murders and rapes. As a result of these offenses sometimes happen behind closed doorways, they’re much less conscious of conventional street-level enforcement and as an alternative require sustained coordination throughout policing, social companies and the courts.
The whole quantity of crimes skilled by New Yorkers is up 25%. Whereas official record-keeping in New York Metropolis and throughout the nation focuses on the seven main crimes (and typically shootings) we’ve outlined above, it’s typically the rising incidence of crime, even when termed “minor,” that impacts the standard of every day lifetime of New Yorkers. The highest 10 crimes by quantity, a lot of them thought-about “less serious” crimes, account for greater than three-quarters of all reported crime. Misdemeanor assaults outnumber shootings 91 to 1. Petit larcenies, which check with small thefts of underneath $1000, outnumber shootings 158 to 1.
A rise within the rely of a given crime doesn’t essentially imply that town is much less protected. Some counts are extremely delicate to policing methods; as an example, if police resolve to escalate or dial again on fare-beating or drug-possession enforcement, the counts for these crimes will surge regardless that the incidence of the offense could not have modified a lot from yr to yr. To account, roughly, for this phenomenon — so crime fluctuations aren’t skewed by modifications in police enforcement — we’ve remoted crime counts that depend on sufferer and witness studies from others.
Even with this adjustment, victim- or witness-reported crimes stay 21% above prepandemic ranges and better than any yr since no less than 2006, indicating that New Yorkers’ unease on the streets displays actual situations somewhat than notion alone.
What in regards to the subways?
Crime on platforms and trains is of outsized concern for New Yorkers as a result of the subway is New York Metropolis’s cellular public sq., the place the place tens of millions of individuals come collectively every day. Including to nervousness is that trains are enclosed areas the place individuals can’t simply take away themselves from harmful conditions. Consequently, regardless that crime is a really uncommon prevalence on the subway, incidents — whether or not uncommon horrific ones or extra frequent quality-of-life issues — reverberate by means of town, upsetting concern.
In 2025, the difficulty was a political soccer as nicely, as federal officers used it in a pretextual method to threaten funds to the Metropolis.
By some measures, crime is getting decrease, even touted by the governor because the “lowest levels in a generation” in 2025. Measuring based mostly on complete crime counts, that’s true (ignoring the height of the pandemic, when crime counts had been for a short interval extraordinarily low as a result of ridership hit unprecedented lows). By one other measure, crime underground is just not at document lows. As soon as ridership is taken into consideration, the speed of main crime per trip stays roughly 13.4% increased than prepandemic ranges.
Complete subway crime counts are extremely delicate to police enforcement. Shifts in police presence and intensified fare-evasion enforcement can increase general counts with out a comparable improve in precise victimization. For instance, in 2025, there have been 34,559 complete crimes on the subway, of which 13,725 had been associated to fare evasion.
Specializing in victim- or witness-reported crimes reveals a sample much like main subway crimes: Complete counts have declined because the pandemic, however the per-ride fee stays 21% increased than in 2019.
Public security, belief and accountability The Mamdani administration took workplace on Jan. 1, promising a brand new strategy to public security coverage — one which depends much less on police enforcement and extra on civilian interventions. There are some evident challenges, as we’ve famous: the rising variety of assaults; the general quantity of crimes, whilst murders and shootings decline; the cussed downside of home violence. Right here, we be aware a number of different points that require consideration from the potential menace posed by federal enforcement, to some basic points within the functioning of the justice system, together with the decades-long spiraling violence within the jails.
Growing federal immigration enforcement in New York Metropolis
No description of the general public security and regulation enforcement panorama in New York Metropolis can be full with out a point out of federal immigration enforcement, which has ratcheted up throughout America. Nationwide, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Safety brokers are arresting way more people suspected of immigration violations — often a civil, not a legal offense — within the inside than underneath earlier administrations. The vast majority of these people aren’t suspected of any legal exercise, however enforcement itself has grow to be a major supply of concern amongst many immigrant New Yorkers.
We be aware this regardless that it’s not a problem that New York Metropolis or New York State controls, as a result of it will probably have an effect on the lifetime of town and the functioning of its justice system. We now have seen elsewhere {that a} sudden inflow of ICE and/or the Nationwide Guard impacts the lives of residents, whether or not documented or not; can injury the economic system as individuals are afraid to exit; and might hurt civic life as residents concern taking their youngsters to highschool and utilizing public parks. The conduct of ICE brokers — together with brutality complaints and a documented failure to abide by fundamental constitutional ensures — is harmful by itself, but additionally has an impact on native regulation enforcement and its personal skill to construct a relationship of belief with New Yorkers.
Hate crimes stay a persistent situation in New York Metropolis, with 68% extra reported hate crimes than there have been in 2017. Jewish New Yorkers have accounted for a majority of victims in recent times. These offenses have an effect on the every day lifetime of all New Yorkers and decide whether or not they’re comfortable within the metropolis or concern assault.
How police work together with the general public impacts their skill to handle crime. Right here we take a look at stops and frisks, complaints towards officers and clearance charges, a measure of the variety of circumstances being solved and thus, straight and not directly, a measure of the arrogance that New Yorkers have within the police’s skill to assist them.
The variety of misconduct allegations towards law enforcement officials greater than doubled through the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. Abuse-of-authority allegations represent the vast majority of complaints and account for a lot of the current improve in complete allegations. These circumstances usually contain claims of improper stops, searches, questioning or arrests. Among the post-2021 rise could replicate a structural change in oversight, as starting in 2022, the Civilian Grievance Assessment Board gained authority to open investigations with out a civilian complainant, which may improve case quantity unbiased of underlying misconduct.
Whereas Mamdani has stated he doesn’t assist defunding the NYPD and can keep present police staffing ranges, his previous criticism of the division and give attention to various fashions have generated public curiosity in how policing methods and ways will evolve going ahead. How police coaching, accountability and neighborhood relations change underneath new management will form not solely enforcement outcomes but additionally public belief within the legal justice system.
Justice system operations
The position of prosecutors, defenders, courts and incarceration are additionally vital when creating a technique to scale back crime. Whereas there are lots of elements of the legal justice system, two metrics are significantly price monitoring as a result of they replicate the well being — or lack of well being — of the bigger system: clearance charges and dismissal charges.
A clearance fee is the proportion of circumstances the police resolve, measured as a share of the variety of crimes. The police outline clearances because the % of circumstances that lead to an arrest (which means {that a} decide or grand jury has decided there’s possible trigger that the particular person has dedicated a criminal offense) or that the division “exceptionally” clears, for instance, within the case of an individual towards whom proof was adequate to cost, however the particular person has died. As a result of fixing a case requires proof, and most of the time the proof is within the type of a witness coming ahead, clearance charges are marker of the arrogance of New Yorkers within the division.
How a case proceeds by means of the system generally is a canary within the mine for the place there are issues, simply as clearance charges generally is a sign of New Yorkers’ willingness to cooperate with police. Dismissal charges generally is a marker of various issues at completely different factors. In New York Metropolis, the dismissal charges are very excessive general and distinction with dismissal charges in the remainder of the state, displaying a troubling variation within the administration of justice and doubtlessly undermining confidence within the system.
At arraignment — the primary look of an individual earlier than a decide after arrest — roughly 20% of circumstances don’t proceed to the subsequent stage (indictment). Of that 20%, a outstanding 52% are dismissed, giving new which means to the notion that “the process is the punishment.” For the 80% that do make it previous arraignment, an astonishing 75% are dismissed. Wanting additional into the explanations for dismissal, no less than two appear that they might be remedied: dismissal for fast trial causes or for a legally inadequate instrument, which means that the proof didn’t assist the cost.
Jails
Town’s jails have a protracted and brutal historical past of violence and mismanagement. In 2015, following a go well with by the U.S. Division of Justice, town agreed to a consent decree in Nunez v. Metropolis of New York that put the jails underneath a judicially supervised monitor. The goal of the consent decree was to scale back the unconstitutional ranges of violence. Since 2015, violence has soared nicely above the degrees thought-about unconstitutional in 2015.
Within the face of this abject failure, the courtroom took a extremely uncommon step of appointing a receiver, referred to as a “remediation manager” right here, who has broad government energy, past any commissioner, to treatment the wrongs.
As this federal official, now named, will get located and his working relationship with town’s new correction commissioner is outlined, town should handle violence on Rikers Island, together with use of drive by correction officers, deaths, stabbings and slashings and the typical size of keep of these incarcerated there.
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