NYC Violent Crime Continues Drop From Pandemic Highs, Data Shows

NEW YORK CITY — Violent crime levels in September didn't reach the blood-soaked heights from the year before, but remained higher than in pre-pandemic years, new monthly crime statistics show.

Mayor Bill de Blasio touted significant drops in murders and shootings last month compared to September 2020.

But while he stressed it showed progress from the coronavirus pandemic's most violent days, he acknowledged more work needed to be done.

“We’re starting to see in parts of the city, getting back to those 2019 levels,” he said Wednesday during his daily briefing. “We know we can do that and ultimately surpass it.”

Shootings and murders surged during in the months after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

De Blasio repeatedly attributed the spike to a "perfect storm" of social upheavals, but critics — including some of his erstwhile allies — argued he didn't do enough to tackle violent crime.

But a concerted NYPD and community effort to curb violence appears to have work. September was the fourth month in a row that violent crime dropped, Dermot Shea, the police commissioner, said.

“We’re finishing 2021 exactly how we started 2020 and we’ve remained committed to that,” he said.

Murders are down nearly 22 percent, but still 59 people died, according to NYPD data. There were 9.3 percent fewer shooting incidents, yet that still means 150 times that bullets whizzed past New Yorkers.

The shooting rate per 100,000 New Yorkers is similar to levels between 2009 and 2012, de Blasio said.

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