When it comes to crime in New York City, police and City Hall say that in some respects, the five boroughs are the safest they have ever been.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Tuesday that overall crime is down across NYC — so much so that records in some major categories are being broken.
“The lowest number of shootings and victims and murders in the first nine months of a year than any year in recorded history,” Tisch said.
Among the statistics shared during a press conference, Mamdani and Tisch highlighted crime decreases in each borough. General crime in the Bronx dropped by 12% in the first nine months of 2026, and by 14% from July through September compared to levels in Sept. 2025. Major crime across all five boroughs dropped by 6.6%.
“Yet we also know. As long as there is a single shooting, a single shooting victim in this city, that is one too many,” Mamdani said.
Major crime statistics overview
Overall crime in New York City was down 9% from July through September, which included part of the hottest summer on record, the FIFA World Cup, the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the High Holy Days, and the United Nations General Assembly.
The largest drop in crime was seen in public housing, where crime decreased by what they said was a historic 7%. Murders committed in public housing units fell 33%, with no murders committed in August, the stats showed. Shootings more generally dropped by 36%, and the number of shooting victims was down 39%.
Robberies in public housing developments also fell by 19% and burglaries decreased 15% compared to 2025 numbers.
NYPD reports less shooting incidents than ever
Summer ended on a very safe note, with the lowest number of shooting incidents ever, according to the NYPD stats. There were 23% fewer incidents recorded from July-September of 2026 than compared to 2025.
When comparing numbers to 2021, there were 846 fewer people shot in 2026 compared to 2021. Across the city, the number of shooting victims in the three-month span was down 28%.
Citywide robberies decreased by 12 percent since last year
Mamdani and Tisch announced big drops in robbery numbers across the city, saying September saw the fewest robberies of any September in New York City history.
Both Brooklyn and Queens recorded their lowest burglary totals ever, and the citywide tally went down by 14%. Residential burglaries dropped even further, by 18%.
Grand larceny was down 6%, with 2,100 fewer incidents than recorded in Sept. 2025. In general, grand larceny fell by 10% since the beginning of summer.
Auto thefts fell 12% citywide as well, with the Bronx seeing the biggest drop, at 27%. In 2025, the Bronx was the only borough to see an increase in auto thefts, becoming a targeted area for the NYPD.
“And what we did was we took a block, literally a block, to block analysis across New York City without looking at any recent boundaries,” NYPD Chief of Department Michael J. LiPetri said about the department’s new approach to targeting crime.
Grand larceny still remains the largest crime category in New York City, accounting for nearly 40% of all crime.
Felony assault is still on the rise, with a slight uptick
There have been 55 more felony assaults in 2026 than there were by the end of Sept. 2025, equating to a small increase of 0.2%. Some of the felony assault increase stems from an 8% increase in assaults on public workers, the NYPD data showed, with a 7.7% increase in assaults on officers.
Domestic violence also continues to be a problem in the city: Cases account for 40% of felony assaults within the five boroughs.
Rape cases have gone up 4% since 2025. About a quarter of rape cases reported in the first nine months of 2026 involved crimes that occurred in previous years, with victims now coming forward.
Subway system felony assault is nearly a percentage point, and nearly half of those attacks (48%) were committed by individuals with documented mental health problems.
Hate crimes remain an area of concern
Antisemitic hate crimes continue to be the most striking crime trend in the city. More than half (53%) of hate crimes in 2026 have been confirmed to have targeted Jewish individuals specifically, despite Jewish people making up only a tenth of the city’s population.
Other hate crimes, specifically anti-Muslim and anti-Hispanic, and gender-based crimes, have also been on an upward trend. These increased by 77.8% , 83.3%, and 122.2%, respectively.
The NYPD’s response
Mayor Mamdani praised public service workers who have played a role in improving crime statistics in the past three months.
“So often we speak about lower crime through the prism of data points and statistics. But just outside this room are hundreds of police officers who devote themselves to the work of devising and implementing strategies that will keep their fellow New Yorkers safe,” Mamdani said at Tuesday’s press conference.
Some of the strategies have included increasing efforts to take illegal firearms off the streets, and more closely monitoring spaces and events that see the most hate crimes each year, such as the Jewish High Holy Days and the West Indian Day Parade.
According to Tisch, the NYPD received over 6,000 fewer crime complaints in 2026 — the lowest amount in 17 years.
In the Bronx, specifically, the NYPD has split what was previously one borough precinct into two, to better target the area’s specific criminal activity. NYPD Chief of Department Michael J. LiPetri partially attributed the drastic decrease in the borough’s crime rate to this change.
Commissioner Tisch said New Yorkers should be heartened by the new crime numbers and committed to visible patrols not going away — even if it means continuing to pay police overtime.
The press conference was postponed due to an assault on off-duty NYPD Detective José Mercedes during the conference’s original time on Oct. 2. During the press conference, Tisch identified the two men wanted by the NYPD for allegedly stabbing Mercedes.
The next crime statistics report will be announced at the end of the year in December.