NEW YORK TIMES: The number of murders in New York City has dropped to what years ago would have seemed like an impossible low: 328 killings recorded in 2014, the lowest figure since at least 1963, when the Police Department began collecting reliable statistics.
With hours left in 2014, the number of murders capped a year of lower numbers in nearly every major crime category and offered an answer to what had been a central question of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first year: Could a mayor elected on promises of police reform keep the specter of the bad old days from returning?…
The decrease in crime in 2014 continues a two-decade slide in New York City. While other cities have seen fluctuations and occasional increases in recent years, New York has largely grown safer. Los Angeles, for example, was on pace to end 2014 with more overall violent crime than in 2013, including big jumps in assaults and rapes. In Chicago, crime is down, but the city recorded 392 murders through Dec. 21 in a much smaller population… (more)
