Commissioner Tisch brags about decline in crime in 2025, credits Hochul, Mamdani who’s been mayor only six days (Part 1)
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said 2025 was a historic year for the NYPD and for the City of New York. In a prepared address, she commended the city’s crime-fighting success “in recorded history” and thanked the NYPD’s partnership with Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani who took office on January 1, 2026. There was no mention of former Mayor Eric Adams, who was city chief from 2022 to 2025, in her speech below:
“In 2025, New York City recorded 688 shooting incidents, the lowest number in the City’s history. That didn’t just break the previous record set in 2018; it shattered it, with 66 fewer shootings than that benchmark year.
“Compared to 2024, shooting incidents fell by 216 citywide. That is a 24 percent reduction. They fell 36 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, and in the month of December, shootings fell 43 percent with just 35 shooting incidents citywide. That is the lowest number of shootings ever in any month of the year, beating the previous record of 36 shooting incidents set in February of 2018.
“To put all of this into perspective, in 2025 we halved Chicago’s more than 1,400 shooting incidents, despite having roughly three times the population. And we halved Philadelphia’s shooting total as well, despite having more than five times the population. This underscores just how far New York City has pushed gun violence down at a scale unlike any other city in the country.
“What is striking is that the drop in shootings from 2024 to 2025 was of a similar magnitude. Given all of this, it should come as no surprise that the number of people shot in New York City also fell to historic lows in 2025 with 856 shooting victims citywide. That is 41 fewer people shot than the previous record year of 2018. Compared to 2024, shooting victims declined by 247 citywide, a 22 percent reduction. That progress accelerated at the end of the year.
“In the fourth quarter, shooting victims fell by more than 34 percent, with December posting the lowest victim totals ever recorded for that month. And compared to 2021, 1,021 fewer people were shot in New York City in 2025. Those historic reductions in shooting incidents and victims weren’t confined to a single part of the city. They were reflected across all five boroughs. Manhattan saw the steepest decline in shootings in 2025, down 38 percent year over year. The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island each saw drops of roughly 25 percent or more. Brooklyn also saw a significant decline, with shootings down 15 percent below the previous benchmark set in 2024.
“Now let’s get into the full crime picture. Major crime in 2025 was down 3 percent citywide with reductions in all five boroughs, including a nearly 4 percent decline in public housing. Make no mistake about it. These reductions are the product of our precision policing strategy, putting an unprecedented number of cops on the streets and in the neighborhoods, driving violence, including thousands of additional officers on foot posts and conducting targeted takedowns of the most violent gangs operating in our city.
“Last year alone, our Detective Bureau carried out 70 takedowns, resulting in the arrest of 390 gang members. You can see the impact of our zone strategy most clearly in the places that have historically experienced the most violent crime and where we have maintained permanent precision policing zones. Take the 25 Precinct, which includes the 125th Street Corridor. Major crime there dropped by 21 percent. Or the 110 and the 115 Precincts, which cover Roosevelt Avenue, where major crime fell 24 percent.
“Now, let’s go through the seven major crime categories. Citywide, murders declined 20 percent in 2025, with 77 fewer people murdered than 2024. And the declines deepened at the end of the year. In December, murders fell to 15 citywide, down nearly 38 percent from 2024. Alongside those reductions, our Detective Bureau has maintained a murder clearance rate of 69 percent in 2025. That citywide decline was driven by significant borough reductions.
“On Staten Island, murders fell by more than 60 percent in 2025. Manhattan was down 33 percent. Brooklyn was down 24 percent. And the Bronx was down 18 percent. Robbery declined nearly 10 percent citywide in 2025, a reduction of more than 1,600 incidents year over year. In 2025, burglaries fell nearly 4 percent citywide. That decline accelerated at the end of the year, down more than 15 percent in December and 10 percent in the fourth quarter. Grand larceny declined nearly 2 percent citywide in 2025.
“Auto theft declined 5 percent citywide in 2025, with a nearly 8 percent drop in the fourth quarter compared to 2024.
“Felony assault remained virtually flat for the year. The overall picture on felony assaults is shaped by two important dynamics. First, assaults on public sector employees, which include police officers, increased by roughly 25 percent last year, a serious and unacceptable trend that reflects the risks our officers continue to face in the line of duty. Second, domestic violence continues to drive a significant share of felony assaults, accounting for nearly 40 percent of these crimes citywide. The NYPD made fundamental changes at the end of last year to how these domestic violence cases are handled.
“In October, we created the Domestic Violence Unit within the Detective Bureau, a survivor-centered, trauma-informed approach that places specialized investigators in every precinct…Citywide, rapes were up 16 percent, largely due to a state law that went into effect in September 2024, which rightfully broadened the legal definition of rape to capture the full range of these crimes. Within that increase, domestic violence-related rapes rose by 25 percent and now account for roughly half of all reported rape cases citywide. That’s why domestic violence cases including sexual violence are now being handled through the NYPD’s domestic violence unit with the focused attention that they require.”
NEXT: Hate crimes down 12 percent in 2025: Tisch
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