NYPD celebrates fewest murders, shootings, shooting victims in recorded history through October

The New York City Police Department reported the fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims and murders in recorded history for the first 10 months of the year.

The NYPD said the decrease in crime is in part because of an aggressive effort to go after gangs. Experts say, however, that could make it harder for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to keep a campaign promise.

Year to date, there have been 536 shooting incidents, which sets a new record low. The prior record of 598 was set last year. There have been 649 shooting victims, down from the record low of 746 also set last year. There have been 230 murders, beating the previous record of 244 set in 2017.

The NYPD said it has seized more than 4,500 illegal guns citywide.

“People often proclaim that the age of heroes is over, that in a world this cynical words like ‘duty’ and ‘sacrifice’ and ‘courage’ belong to another time. But I know that that is not true. I know that heroes are real because day after day, I have the great honor of working with 35,000 of them, and now, so do you,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the latest NYPD recruits to graduate from the police academy Monday as confetti fell.

Tisch had a lot to celebrate — not only a new crop of cops, but historic drops in crime. The NYPD attributes the new records in part to the fact that detectives carried out 26 gang-related takedowns.

Retired Det. Dave Sarni said that might make it difficult for Mamdani to keep a campaign promise to eliminate the gang database.

“We need to stop playing the political aspect, political points to this and raising that and realize it is a valuable tool. Just like every other tool in the toolbox of the police force is a valuable tool, like surveillance cameras, like proactive engagement with individuals. That is an active, useful tool,” Sarni said.

While most of the monthly crime report was good news, hate crimes — especially against Jewish New Yorkers — continued an upward spiral. Overall, hate crimes rose 15.2% from 460 for the same period in 2025 to 530. More than half of the hate crimes — 52.6% — were antisemitic, despite Jews making up just 10% of the city’s population.

Sarni said the way to stop hate crime is to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

“Once a person is arrested — now here’s the thing — hate crimes raise the level of the crime from misdemeanor to a felony on some instances. The reality is, unfortunately, we’re talking about, you know, if it’s a misdemeanor, it is not bail eligible. So you get out and you do it again,” Sarni said.

Police said this is the second-safest year in the subway in the last 15 years, excluding the pandemic. That said, subway crimes are still up slightly, just over 2% — or 39 more crimes.

Sarni said it’s because of fare evasion, which continues to be a stubborn problem for the MTA. He said when people jump turnstiles they are more likely to commit other crimes.