NYPD crime stats show record drop in shootings for year to date

New York City hit historic lows in shootings for the first seven months of 2025, spurred by a nearly 18% drop in July, marking the lowest year-to-date total since modern record-keeping began in 1994, the NYPD said Monday.

Since Jan. 1, the city has recorded 412 shootings and 489 shooting victims. The previous record-low for shootings at the seven-month mark was 426 in 2017, according to the latest NYPD Comstat data. The previous low for shooting victims was 522 wounded in 2018, the data shows.

Overall major crimes in 2025 have declined just under 5% compared to the same time period last year. Homicides have dropped nearly 26%, robberies by almost 12% and grand larcenies by 6.3% The only category showing an increase was rape, which has spiked by more than 22% so far this year. Part of the increase is attributed to the rise in sex crimes that can be now classified as rape after recent changes to the New York State penal law.

In a statement, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch credited the drop in shootings and crime overall to the recent summer-violence reduction zones in which 2,000 officers are patrolling in 72 precision policing zones around the city.

"Since its start on May 5, major crime in the Summer Zones during deployment hours is down 20.2%, shootings are down 50.6%, felony assaults are down 28.5%, and robbery is down 23.3%," Tisch said.

The latest shooting and crime data comes as issue of policing and street crime has become a focus in the mayoral campaign, particularly in light of the mass shooting last week at 345 Park Ave. in Manhattan that took the life of NYPD Det. Didarul Islam and three others. The shooting suspect Shane Tamura took his own life.

In a separate statement on the crime data, Mayor Eric Adams thanked Tisch and the NYPD, which he said was necessary considering past calls to defund p olice. Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has distanced himself from his previous statements about defunding the police and recently stated he is against it.

While the crime data continued to show significant drops in serious felonies, as well as drops in subway and housing area crimes, the records show that since the beginning of 2025, the pace of the crime decreases, once in the midteen percentage range has ebbed.

One police official who didn’t want to be named said that while the continuing crime drop could leave the city with a year end total of about 117,000 serious felonies — about a 10% drop from 2024 — it might be hard to do better in coming months. The latest low shooting numbers, might also be hard to beat, the official said, in part because the special summer crime details will eventually end.

Another challenge: recruitment. Tisch has said the department faces ongoing difficulty getting enough new recruits to replace the many retirements and resignations in recent years.

The latest NYPD data shows there are 33,740 uniformed officers, which is well below the 36,000 during the de Blasio administration, and the 41,000 around the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2011.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.