by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (USA) (ITALPRESS) – New York continues to become more and more secure. In the first nine months of 2026 the city recorded the lowest number of murders, shootings and people hit by firearms since the beginning of the survey.
To present the new data at One Police Plaza were mayor Zohran Mamdani and police commissioner Jessica Tisch, according to which the decline of crime continued during a particularly busy summer for the city. From January to September 203 murders were recorded, 50 less than the same period of 2025, a decrease close to 20%. The shooting victims were 594 versus 694 last year. Compared to 2021 there are even 846 less, a decline of almost 60%. Only in the third quarter the shooting decreased by 23% and the affected by 28%.
“We had the safest summer in New York history for shooting, shooting victims and murders,” said Mamdani. The mayor underlined that in the first eight months of the year five thousand crimes had already been reported less than 2025 and how the decline affected all five boroughs. The overall picture presented by NYPD indicates a decrease of almost 7% of the seven main crimes, with over 6 thousand complaints less than the same period last year. The Bronx leads the improvement with a drop of 12%, while Brooklyn and Manhattan both record a less 7%.
They disengage 12% of the robberies, almost 14% of thefts with dig and 12% of the car thefts. Large thefts decrease by almost 6%, while the shoplift has dropped by over 12%, almost 5 thousand episodes less. The police also seized more than 4,000 illegal weapons from the beginning of the year.
Mamdani has attributed the results to the joint work of police and violence prevention programs in communities. Tisch emphasised the NYPD’s “precision policing” strategy: analysis of data, concentration of agents in areas and at times most at risk, seizure of illegal weapons and gang operations. A more contrasted picture emerges in the subway. In August there were no rapes or shootings and the robberies were the lowest ever recorded in that month. In the entire 2026, however, major crimes in the transport system increased by 0.9%, especially for the increase of 11% of serious aggression. According to Tisch, almost half of these were committed by people with previous documented mental health problems.
Right on this point emerges one of the first indications of the Mamdani strategy. Asked about the possibility to further increase the agents in the subway during the winter, the mayor assured “full confidence” in NYPD, without excluding any measure, but insisted on the need to address the social causes of the problem, increasing the shelters to prevent the homeless being forced to seek shelter in the subway.
Tisch has specified that the program that finances 5 thousand additional hours per day of police overtime in the subway will continue and will not suffer cuts. Other negative signals remain. Severe assaults increased by 0.2% and rape reported by 4%, although a quarter of the complaints were reported in previous years. Above all, hate crimes have increased by 13% since the beginning of the year. 53% of confirmed episodes were targeting Jewish citizens. “We will not allow ourselves to become complacent,” said Mamdani. For the mayor, even with statistics at the lowest historians, “one crime in our city is already a crime of too much.”.
– Photo Ipa Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
