NEW YORK, NY— New York City recorded the fewest murders ever reported through the first five months of a year as major crime continued to decline across the five boroughs, according to new NYPD statistics.
The Police Department reported a 10.6 percent drop in major crime citywide in May and a decline of more than 6 percent in the subway system compared with the same period last year.
Through the end of May, police recorded 102 murders, down from 129 during the same period in 2025, a decrease of nearly 21 percent. T
he total marks the lowest number of killings recorded during the first five months of any year, surpassing the previous record of 113 set in 2014 and matched in 2017, officials said.
Police also reported record lows in murders, shooting incidents and shooting victims.
“Across our city, the NYPD is delivering on its mission to keep New Yorkers safe,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch wrote in a statement to NY Daily News.
Last month, the NYPD launched its Summer Violence Reduction Plan, assigning up to 3,800 officers to nightly foot posts in 72 zones spanning 40 precincts, public housing developments and the subway system.
The department also expanded its Youth Violence Safety Zones initiative, which targets locations where young people face the highest risk of violence, including commuter corridors, bus stops and routes to and from schools.
Since the program began in September 2025, youth-related crime during deployment hours in those zones has fallen nearly 53 percent. Police reported 185 incidents so far this year, compared with 391 during the same period last year.
Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages, chair of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said violence prevention was a central topic during a recent meeting between caucus leaders and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at City Hall.
“We do have an epidemic of gun violence in our communities,” Solages told Patch. “We talked about how we can use holistic and community-based programs to end the violence that exists in our community.”
The discussion came as city data and independent research point to declines in shootings in neighborhoods served by Cure Violence programs.
A Patch analysis of NYPD shooting data found precincts with the programs experienced an average decline of about 22 percent in shootings after implementation.
New York City Council researchers also found shooting reductions ranging from 14 percent to 17 percent in precincts with Cure Violence initiatives, which use outreach workers and violence interrupters to mediate conflicts and connect residents with social services.
Public housing developments also recorded their safest start to a year on record, according to department data. Officials reported the fewest murders, shooting incidents, shooting victims and robberies ever documented during the period.
Police officials credited the decline in part to the department’s data-driven deployment strategy.
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