Mumtaz Hussain
NEW YORK: The New York Police Department announced Tuesday that New York City has recorded historic lows in shootings, murders, transit crime, and retail theft in 2025, marking one of the safest periods in the city’s modern history.
Newly released data shows that the first 11 months of 2025 saw just 652 shooting incidents and 812 shooting victims, the lowest totals ever recorded and both new records that surpass previous lows set in 2018.
November also closed with significant declines. The city recorded 16 murders, tying the all-time low for any November on record. Both Queens and Staten Island saw zero murders for the month, and overall murders were down 46.6 percent compared to November 2024.
Transit crime continued its steep downward trend as well. Crime in the subway system fell 24.8 percent in November compared to the same month last year, making it the safest November in recorded history outside the pandemic years, when ridership had plunged.
The stretch from July through November was the safest five-month period ever recorded in the transit system, and robberies on the subway reached their lowest levels ever for both November and the year-to-date period.
Retail theft also dropped sharply ahead of the holiday shopping season. The NYPD reported a 20.1 percent decline in citywide retail theft for November, crediting the drop to revamped foot patrol strategies, improved coordination with transit officers, a stronger investigative focus on repeat offenders, and an increased emphasis on identifying patterns early.
Major crime across the city continued a broad, multi-year decline. Overall major crime fell 5.6 percent in November, and the city saw reductions in burglary, robbery, auto theft, and grand larceny. Rape reports were down 4.8 percent.
Felony assaults rose slightly by 1.5 percent, a trend police officials say is driven largely by domestic violence, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of felony assault cases. In response, the NYPD launched a new Domestic Violence Unit in September, the largest in the nation, with 450 investigators dedicated to improving investigations and survivor outreach. Crime in public housing developments also fell 8 percent for the month.
Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said the historic declines stem from the NYPD’s Fall Violence Reduction Plan, a precision-policing initiative that deploys up to 1,800 officers nightly across 54 targeted zones. According to the department, shootings in those areas have dropped 40 percent during deployment hours since the plan launched. Tisch credited officers for “discipline and dedication” in executing the strategy.
Mayor Eric Adams said the numbers reflect eight consecutive quarters of declining major crime citywide and praised the NYPD for helping to keep New York “the safest big city in America.”
Adams noted that the department has conducted 61 gang-related takedowns this year and seized more than 4,960 illegal guns in 2025, part of more than 24,700 guns recovered since the beginning of his administration.
