NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the “unprecedented” hiring of more cops helped drive down major crime by 9.5% across the five boroughs through the first four months of 2026.
New data released by the department showed documented murders hiting an all-time low in April – part of an overall dip in crime that NYPD brass attribute to a focus on gang violence and illegal guns.
Police reported 19 murders in the city last month, beating the record of 21 set in 2014 and 2017, while the citywide year-to-date number of 76 murders beat the previous number of 86 set in 2018.
Staten Island has not had a single homicide this year.
“A lot of what you’re seeing in crime numbers that we reported today are seeds that we planted over a year ago now that are really sprouting,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told The Post on Monday. “It takes a while to turn the ship.
“I am quite proud of the members of the New York City Police Department, particularly the 35,000 uniformed members who have taken these strategies we’ve given them and have executed them brilliantly, both brilliantly and selflessly,” Tisch said. “And we will continue to innovate.”
She said the department plans to keep the trend going by launching a “Summer Violence Reduction Plan” for the coming months, which the NYPD is calling the largest deployment in history.
The strategy calls for as many as 3,800 of New York’s Finest to be deployed to 72 patrol zones in 40 police precincts, public housing projects and the city subway system, police said.
Using numbers crunched by police analysts, cops will be assigned to foot patrols in high-crime areas at the most vulnerable times.
There are more officers to deploy thanks to Tisch’s aggressive recruiting efforts since taking over as top cop, which has beefed up the department ranks after years of decline.
“Our unprecedented hiring last year actually plays significantly into that zone strategy,” Tisch said.
“Because we have so many young officers as part of our field training, we put those officers on footposts in the places where we know the crime, the violent crime, has historically occurred, and also at the times that we know that the violent crime occurs.”
“We’re doing these zones year-round, but we’re also now doing zones to combat specific times of crime,” she said.
The summer months promise to pose a challenge, with a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and the World Cup soccer championship coming to the New York metropolitan area.
NYPD strategies have worked, with only one stain on the stellar crime stats — rapes up more than 10% so far this year compared to the same span last year, with 711 in 2026 compared to 644 in 2025.
Police attributed the number to a 2024 change in state law that expanded the definition of rape.
However, all the other numbers are promising, including dips in shootings, transit and public housing crime, and a drop in retail thefts so far this year, the department said.
The numbers are part of an ongoing trend that began more than a year ago.
Overall crime in public housing is down 8.7% this year, with 1,721 reported incidents compared to 1,886 through the first four months of last year, while transit crime — once a major source of concern for rank and file New Yorkers — dipped by 0.6%, or 711 reports this year to 715 last year.
But the most promising numbers came in April.
Burglaries in April were down 21.5% this year, with 857 logged this year compared to 1,053 over the same span in 2025. Auto theft was down 20.2%, with 962 this year from 1,205 last year, while robberies dropped by 13.8%, with 1,053 reports this year and 1,222 last year.
Felony assaults were down 6% in April, with 2,426 this year and 2,580 last year, the stats show.
Retail thefts dropped by 17.7% last month, down to 3,680 after 4,471 the same time last year.
The Bronx, which last year bucked the trend in crime reduction, saw the biggest declines so far this year, including a 15.5% decrease in murders, with 2,218 compared to 2,626 over the first four months of 2025.
In April, the northernmost borough recorded the fewest murders in history, with just four, and shootings dropped by more than 58% — 13 this year compared to 31 in the same month in 2025 — the second-fewest in recorded history, the NYPD said.
April also saw a more than 35% reduction in hate crimes citywide, to 50 from 77 last year, including a 30.2% drop in antisemitic incidents, with 30 compared to 43 in April 2025.
That’s an improvement over the first three months of the year, when the stats showed that hate crimes were up more than 11%, with 55% of those targeting Jewish victims.
“I’ve now been at the department for 18 months,” Tisch said. “Last year we hired more new officers than any year on record. We changed out the leadership team.
“[Former NYPD] Commissioner [William] Bratton always used to say, ‘You have to get the right people on the bus. And once they’re on the bus, you have to put them in the right seats.’
“And so I feel we’ve done that.”