Homicides in New York City are at a record low. According to a New York Times report out Wednesday, 285 people were killed there this year. To give you some perspective, in 1990 more than 2,000 people were killed.
The decline coincides with instructions by Mayor Bill de Blasio for police to cut down on deadly force, arrests and stop-and-frisk practices.
Crime has actually fallen in multiple categories. That puts New York City in line with 29 of America's other largest cities that are all expected to conclude the year with drops in crime.
It's not all good news though. Reports of rape in New York City have gone up toward the end of the year. Police attribute that to the recent string of sexual assault scandals which, combined with police efforts, may have encouraged more people to report rapes.
The numbers are preliminary, but New York City is set to break last year's record low number of murders and reach the lowest crime levels the city has seen since the 1950s.
