Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police  Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly today announced that New York City continues to reduce overall crime to levels not seen in decades and remains the safest big city in America, according to the FBI's Preliminary Crime Report for 2005.  The report shows that the City experienced a 4.3% drop in overall crime last year, bringing the cumulative decrease from 2001 to 17.7%. In addition, the FBI's report shows that violent crime increased nationwide by 2.5%, the largest increase since 1991.  In New York City, however, violent crime continued to drop, falling 1.9%, while property crime fell 5.1% in the City, compared with a national decline of 1.6%.

"Today's report by the FBI showing a national increase in violent crime last year underscores the importance of our new national effort to take illegal guns off the street," said Mayor Bloomberg.   "Through innovative policing strategies like Operation Impact and cutting edge technologies like the Real Time Crime Center, we've continued to make America's safest big city even safer.  Last year, we reduced crime in nearly every category across New York City and our reductions in overall crime outpace the nation by nearly three times. And, it is a tremendous credit to our men and women in uniform that we have bucked the national trend and continued to drive violent crime to record lows."

"The latest FBI report reaffirms that the fact that our police officers are doing an outstanding job in suppressing crime through Operation Impact and related strategies," said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly

For 2005, the total crime index in New York City was 2680.2 crimes per 100,000 people.  Out of the 245 cities with a population of 100,000 or more that reported to the FBI, New York City ranked 226th between Orange, California and Edison Township, New Jersey.  Out of the nation's 10 largest cities, New York City ranked 10th with the lowest Index Crime rate per 100,000 population.  Out of the nation's 25 largest cities, New York ranked 25th based upon Index Crime rate.

% Change from 2004 - 2005

The following chart shows where New York City ranked in the Total Crime Index for the nation's largest cities.