2017 was the Safest Year in Brooklyn’s History

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that 2017 will end as the safest year in Brooklyn’s recorded history, with the fewest number of homicides, shootings and shooting victims since record-keeping began. Crown Heights saw a particularly noteworthy 40% reduction in homicides.

Building on this trend, the DA’s Office is set to announce a reform-driven agenda after the new year that will maintain a focus on driving down violent crime while finding new opportunities for diversion, transparency and efficiency.

Only 110 murders were recorded in Brooklyn in 2017 (nine of which were reclassified homicides from previous years, meaning the actual count of homicide deaths that took place this year was 101). That figure is down 18 murders (14.1%) compared to last year, which had the third-fewest homicides ever recorded and it eclipses the previous record low of 2014, when 122 murders were recorded.

The reductions in shootings and shooting victims, coming on the heels of approximately 13% drops in 2016, are even more astounding. There were 118 fewer shooting incidents compared to the same period in 2016 (a total of 287, down 29%) and 149 fewer shooting victims (a total of 341, down 30.4%).

While decreases in murders and shootings took place in most Brooklyn neighborhoods, certain precincts experienced particularly noteworthy declines. The number of homicides in East New York dropped from 23 to 11 (down 52.2%) with a 35.7% decrease in shootings, and in Crown Heights, murders were cut by 40%, from 10 to 6, with a 57% nosedive in shootings. In Brownsville, homicides were down 35.7% and shootings were down 32.6%.

In addition, the Total Index Crime in Brooklyn (representing the seven major felony crimes) was down 5% in 2017 compared to last year, with decreases in all categories except for reported rapes (19 additional incidents or a 4.3% increase). The number of arrests in the borough is down by over 7,200 (an 8.4% drop) for a total of less than 80,000.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “The historic declines in crime that we are experiencing in Brooklyn can be described as nothing short of a miracle. But they were not achieved by chance – they are a testament to the dedicated work and smart-on-crime strategies of the NYPD, my prosecutors and our other partners in law enforcement and in the community. Next year, I pledge to continue the focus on enhancing safety while putting forth an ambitious reform agenda that will identify new opportunities for diversion, reduce reliance on incarceration and promote a fair system of justice that strengthens communities’ trust and engagement.”

12 Comments

  • three monkeys

    if we are deterred from reporting there wont be crime.
    crime unreported never happened. so when we say why don’t the police do anything maybe we need to report all incidents.

  • Made up

    Total manipulation of numbers
    As the rule goes…. if it’s not reported… it didn’t happen… so the police under report crimes.. so they get lower crime numbers.
    How do I know…? Because when I called the police to report a crime. I offered evidence. And info….They did nothing to follow up and nothing to get to bottom of it… in fact… nothing happened….

    • speaker

      that was my EXACT experience, they just don’t respond to stuff like they did with Rudy ruled. better yet they say they are busy and call you back 1 hour later asking if the “condition” not crime is still present as opposed to a crime is in progress respond. Baloney numbers by a corrupt ego maniac atheist mayor.

  • The untold reason

    Bc there are less and less middle to lower income families (let alone families at all) and I’m not sure that’s a good thing for us.

  • speaker

    based on the picture above, it seems to be in NYPD you have to qualify for the heavyweight boxing class, can these guys and women even run?

  • Crown Heightser

    There are far more cameras on our streets than ever before in history; which creates a phenomenal deterrent, and an effective tool wich allowes police to retrieve video footage from our community member’s hotespots camera location, therefore letting them identify perpetrators and prosecute them

  • Bklyn Is The Place !!

    Way 2 Go Bklyn !! Amazing !! Keep up the Gr8 work, when ppl behave & don’t do stupid things, Gr8 things happen, let’s make 2018 even better !! Go Bklyn !! Go Bklyn !! & to Noam the Los Angeles man, u could stay in Los Angeles, to tell u the truth L.A. has its bad neighborhoods as well, u think L.A. is so safe, plenty of crime there, idk where in Los Angeles u live, but No, Los Angeles isn’t any safer than Bklyn, Nowhere is safe !! What’s so Gr8 about Los Angeles plz tell us

  • To #4 Noam,

    What is so great about Los Angeles, you’re making a statement that Los Angeles is way safer than Bklyn, please show proof, do u have a link from a website that shows the crime rate of the year 2017 for the city of Los Angeles ? From there we can compare if Los Angeles is safer than Bklyn, what else don’t u like about Bklyn ? The fact that you’re writing this comment shows u have a resentment about Bklyn, please tell us what u don’t like about Bklyn, the city the Rebbe lived in, did the Rebbe live in Los Angeles ?

  • To # 4 Noam

    Btw in your comment it’s spelled than, not then, u wrote “Whatever it is in Los Angeles is much much safer then New York City” !!! as well it’s not, “is much much safer”, it should be “it’s much much safer”, btw have u been 2 770, were u ever by the Rebbe ? Again Los Angeles is a nice city, beautiful Frum community but it’s not Bklyn !! Every city has it’s advantages & disadvantages, but please learn how to use correct spelling 4 the comments u write, ty