New York’s early-2026 crime numbers point to a city that, on most fronts, is getting safer — but they also highlight how quickly conditions can shift when policing policy is constrained at City Hall.
Through Feb. 28, the New York Police Department posted sharp declines across several of the most serious categories, including what the department described as record lows in shootings, shooting victims and killings. Over the first two months of the year, murders were down 33.3%, with 16 homicides compared with 24 during the same January–February stretch in 2025.
Gun violence fell even more steeply. Shooting incidents dropped 45.5% year over year, and the number of shooting victims declined 36.4%. Robberies also moved in the right direction, falling 33%.
Property and quality-of-life measures showed improvement as well. In February, retail theft was 24.7% lower than in the same month a year earlier, while crime in public housing developments decreased 14.7%.
Those gains came as Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch continued the approach the department has labeled “precision policing,” a strategy officials have credited with helping make 2025 the city’s safest year on record, marked by historically low major-crime and gun-violence totals.
One area, however, moved sharply in the opposite direction: the subway system. Subway crime climbed by nearly 20% in February after Mayor Zohran Mamdani directed police officers and other city employees not to compel people experiencing homelessness — or anyone else — to leave the transit system during a period of snowfall and below-freezing temperatures.
The immediate operational impact was significant. The city recorded a 61% decrease in subway ejections compared with January, and offenses in the transit system rose to more than 190.
The mixed results are emerging alongside broader questions about resources and staffing. Mamdani has kept NYPD spending flat and has rolled back previously discussed hiring increases, decisions critics argue could limit the department’s ability to sustain the reductions in violence.
For now, the citywide totals suggest Tisch’s department is maintaining momentum on key crime indicators. But the February subway surge, following a mayoral directive that narrowed enforcement options, underscored how policy decisions from City Hall can quickly alter outcomes in the spaces New Yorkers use every day.
