NYPD reports historic lows in murders and shootings for 2025, but rape reports on the rise

New York City recorded the lowest number of shootings in any first quarter of the modern era during the first three months of 2025, police said Thursday.

Jessica Tisch, who's now four months into her job as NYPD commissioner, also said murders hit their second lowest numbers in history, while other major crimes also dropped — including subway crimes, retail thefts, robberies and serious assaults.

Rapes, however, increased by 21% the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year police said.

Tisch credited what she called “violence reduction zones” — a strategy of targeting high-crime areas — for the drops in most violent crimes.

“ These tailored hyperlocal daily deployments focus on the true drivers of crime,” she said. “This scalpel approach to policing is increasing public safety across all five boroughs.”

Overall major crime dropped by 11% for the first three months of this year in all categories except rape. Tisch attributed that increase to legal changes and outreach efforts to encourage more reporting, but rape incidents have remained stubbornly high even in years when other crimes have dropped.

Tisch said there have been zero subway murders so far this year – the first time that’s happened in a first quarter since 2018.

Mayor Eric Adams credited the 18% drop in transit crime to the increased police presence on the trains.

“ It has made a major impact,” he said. “Thanks to that presence, the omnipresence that we talked about, that we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing.”

One of Tisch’s first initiatives since becoming commissioner was a focus on quality of life crimes, especially enforcing subway rules against taking up more than one seat or fare evasion.

She defended the approach Thursday, saying, “ This is not a dragnet, this is not harassment. This is about restoring a sense of safety and order in the system.”

She said not enforcing transit rules led to a perception of lawlessness that made people feel unsafe.

“The truth is, this approach allows the NYPD to address the random acts of violence that we're seeing in the subways,” she said.

While officials didn’t provide updated arrest numbers for this year so far, arrests have risen in previous months, particularly low-level ones. It comes as New Yorkers have complained about not feeling safe despite reductions in major crime.

Last month two people died in police custody after being arrested for low-level offenses like theft and minor drug possession. They had been detained under a growing practice of holding people instead of releasing them with a court date. Defense attorneys say the move is illegal and have called on the city to investigate.

At Thursday’s press briefing, NYPD Chief of Crime Control Michael Lipetri said police are making a higher percentage of arrests for serious crimes like robbery and felony assaults.

“It's the highest that I've seen since being the chief of crime control strategies,” he said.

He added that police are making a higher percentage of shoplifting arrests, about 50% so far this year compared to about 30% in years prior.

Tisch said that the 21% increase in rape is due to changes in how rape is defined and because of also encouraging more people to report sexual assaults by taking reports when survivors receive other social and legal services.

Tisch said NYPD  detectives have started taking sexual assault reports at the city's five Family Justice Centers, where survivors are already receiving legal and social services in a safe environment.

“This has helped more survivors to come forward and seek justice,” she said.

This story has been updated with new information.