Violent crime in New York City remained at historically low levels through April, with the Bronx recording some of the steepest declines, the NYPD said Monday.
Department leaders said they are hoping to build on that progress ahead of the summer, when crime typically spikes as more people gather outdoors.
Police data released Monday shows the city had its fewest murders on record for the first four months of the year. That broke a record for the same four months set in 2018, which is widely regarded as one of the city’s lowest crime years since tracking began.
Shooting victims and incidents are also down slightly so far since January of this year, the data shows. For April, gun violence fell by more than 18% compared to the same month last year.
The figures show a continuation of a drop in crime following a significant spike during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the most significant recent decreases are happening in places where crime has historically been high, according to the NYPD.
Officials said the Bronx led the way in April for declines in major crime.
The borough recorded its fewest murders in history last month, at four. Shooting incidents and victims there dropped by more than 50% and 60%, respectively, when compared to the same period in 2025. For comparison, police recorded four murders in Manhattan in April, four in Queens, seven in Brooklyn and none in Staten Island.
Robbery and auto thefts also fell in the Bronx by 24% and 44%, respectively.
The city’s public housing complexes experienced major reductions in murders, shootings, and robberies, with crime down 9% across NYCHA citywide, police said. According to public safety experts, crime tends to concentrate around public housing due to gang-related conflicts, run-down infrastructure, high population density, a lack of economic resources and social services, and a prevalence of off-lease tenants with criminal records.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the crime declines are the result of a policing strategy focused on using data to remove illegal guns from the streets and dismantle violent gangs and criminal groups.
“That approach is producing real, measurable crime reductions across the city, and it will continue to guide our work in the months ahead,” she said in a statement.
While citywide data shows gun violence continues to ebb, a number of recent incidents spotlight a troubling increase in shootings among young people under the age of 18, Gothamist previously reported. Police data revealed more teens are suspected in shootings across the city, even though the number of young victims has remained relatively static.
To combat that trend, NYPD officials said they have deployed Youth Violence Safety Zones, which bring more officers into commuter corridors, bus stops and the busy routes to and from schools. According to the data released Monday, the strategy has brought shooting victims and incidents down by more than 60% in the zones during deployment hours.
With warmer weather around the corner, the NYPD said it is rolling out its Summer Violence Reduction Plan, which will assign up to 3,800 officers to nightly foot posts across 72 zones in 40 precincts, including public housing complexes and the subway system.
The only crime categories that are up so far this year, according to police data, are rape and sex crimes. Officials said this increase is partially the result of the Rape is Rape Act, which passed in September 2024 and broadened the legal definition of rape in New York state to include additional forms of sexual assault.
Major crime in the city’s transit system was virtually unchanged, dropping to 711 total incidents from 715 during the same period in 2025.
Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been clarified to reflect that murders were at the lowest level on record.
