New York City Murders Fall Once Again

New York City has decreased its murder rate once again, only this time it's record breaking.

Via The New York Times:

The police said that there were 494 recorded homicides in 2007, meaning that the city had so far logged fewer than 500 for the first time since reliable statistics became available 44 years ago. Last year, there were 596 homicides. Continuing a 15-year trend, the murder rate in New York City has gone lower than many would have imagined. It's dramatic said Joseph A. Pollini, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It's phenomenal. It's sort of unheard of.

The police credit three ways they have driven down the number of murders year-after-year.

• Operation Impact - The four year old program teams policy academy graduates with seasoned officers in the roughest neighborhoods. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said all 914 recruits sworn in last Thursday will enter Operation Impact. Many will find themselves in parts of Brooklyn, where crime has been stubbornly high.
• Real-time crime database - The two year old technology relays information on suspects and crimes to officers already on the ground.
• Domestic Violence Focus - Since 2003, police officers have concentrated on domestic abuse offenders which has driven down domestic violence homicides.

"We are not the same New York that we were in 1990, a year when more than 2,000 people were murdered," Bloomberg said at a press conference last week, according to CNN.com. "We're also not the same city we were in 2001, when many predicted that our crime-fighting gains would soon be a point of diminishing returns."