NYPD officials are describing this summer as one of the safest ever in New York City history. But that overall trend comes with caveats — as reports of felony assaults continue to rise slightly, and hate crimes are up 15% year-to-date.
Shootings, murders, robberies and burglaries all continued declining month-over-month in August, as they have all year, including in the city's public housing complexes and subway systems. Experts say June, July and August tend to be an important telltale for crime analysts and public safety officials because of a surge in violence that’s fueled in part by more late-night, outdoor gatherings that involve alcohol.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch touted that the stats were achieved as the department managed “an unprecedented series of high-profile events,” including the Knicks' NBA Championship, the World Cup, Sail 250, and America’s 250th Fourth of July celebration. She attributed some of the progress to the department’s Summer Violence Reduction Plan, which launched in May and deployed officers at the specific times and places where violence tends to concentrate.
“It's been a great summer,” said Christopher Herrmann, a former NYPD crime analyst who is now a professor at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He said he’s “very surprised” at how prevalent the declines have been.
“Typically we would see decreases in boroughs, maybe even the entire borough. But very rarely do you get a citywide decline with very few increases at the neighborhood level,” he said.
The fact that the crime spike didn’t really materialize this summer could be the result of a combination of factors, Herrmann said — including precision policing and the NYPD’s ability to allocate more officers to the places that might need them.
In the Bronx, where NYPD Commissioner Tisch has announced plans to send 200 more officers to address pervasive public safety issues, reported shootings and murders were also down this August compared to August 2025. Reported murders dropped by about 36%, and reported shooting incidents dropped by about 22%.
In Brooklyn, the continued decline in violence means the borough is on track to report another record-low year for crime, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Over June, July and August of 2025, the borough recorded 28 homicides; this year, it recorded 15.
Gonzalez said the decreases have allowed his office to “ really focus our efforts on those folks who do pick up guns and pull triggers.” He said his office is investing in on-the-ground anti-violence organizations and improving technologies for presenting evidence in court to make prosecution more efficient
According to Herrmann and the Council on Criminal Justice, a national organization focused on criminal justice policy, there are also external forces at play: the entire country is experiencing a decline in crime this year, and New York City is following that trend.
Research specialist Ernesto Lopez, one of the authors of the Council on Criminal Justice's most recent report, said the country is on track to experience its lowest homicide rate since 1900. Possible factors for that pattern include "larger social changes” like an aging demographic, more young people spending time alone and on their phones, improved policing technologies and increased investment in local violence intervention programs.
Where crime is rising
In the midst of all the declines, experts are still trying to understand why reported felony assaults — defined as the kinds of attacks that leave people with serious injuries — are still on the rise. NYPD officials said felony assaults have increased by around 3% this August compared to the same month last year, with more than 2,660 incidents reported. However, felony assaults are only up less than 1% year-to-date, compared to 2025.
“Typically, when violence falls, violence falls, but in this case, we're starting to see an increase in assault,” Herrmann said. “And I'm kind of curious, is this going to be the start of the other violent crimes now starting to reverse that trend, starting to increase as well?”
According to NYPD data, reoffenders are a bigger problem in the felony assault category than they have been in years past. By this time in 2018, police arrested fewer than 100 people for allegedly committing multiple felony assaults. In 2026, officials said, the number of such alleged three-time reoffenders has almost tripled.
"The NYPD has served its role in arresting and going after felony assault cases with nearly 80% of these cases resulting in arrests,” Brad Weekes, an NYPD spokesperson, said. “We believe that we are playing our part in the criminal justice system."
Reports of hate crimes are also on the rise, with an increase of more than 15% so far this year, compared to the same period last year. The spike has been fueled partly by anti-Jewish hate crimes, which alone accounted for more than half of the confirmed hate crimes for the first eight months of the year — even though Jewish New Yorkers only account for 10% of the city’s population — according to NYPD data.
Herrmann said some of that could be attributed to the conflicts in the Middle East, but also to the fact that victims are more aware of the issue and therefore more likely to report it.
Where crime is rising
Despite the positive trends, felony assaults in particular can lead to the perception among residents of imminent danger, especially when they appear to be random, Herrmann said. This week’s fatal stabbing in Times Square — which killed 32-year-old Erin Piacenti as she left work, left another man injured, and left the perpetrator dead after an encounter with police — is exactly the kind of thing that stokes fear, he added.
“There's nothing more rattling for public safety,” he said. “The reality is none of us when we're leaving our office buildings or schools or whatever, we're not necessarily ready for someone who is going to just attack us out of the blue, you know?”
On a borough-wide level, Gonzalez said, residents’ perception of safety is finally starting to catch up with the stats.
“Overwhelmingly, people are telling me they feel safer than they felt before. They're starting to believe the numbers. They're starting to feel it,” he said. “I can tell you just a few years ago, people told me the opposite.”
Now that the crime spikes of the COVID-19 pandemic appear to be behind New York City, Herrmann said, the big question among experts is how much lower it can go.
“We're starting to wonder about the current trend,” he said. “When is it going to level off? And then even when is it going to start to go back up again?”
