The short answer: NYC just had the safest January-through-April in recorded city history. Murders are at an all-time low for the first four months of any year on record, major crime is down 9.5% citywide for April compared to last April, and the only crime category that went up — reported rape — is up partly because the state legally broadened what counts as rape in late 2024. That last piece is the one almost no headline explains, and it matters if you’re trying to figure out whether your neighborhood is actually getting safer or just being counted differently. Here’s the decode.
What the NYPD released — in plain English
On May 4, 2026, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch released the citywide CompStat numbers for April and for the first four months of the year. The official release is on nyc.gov. We pulled it directly. Here is what the city’s own data actually shows.
From January 1 through April 30, 2026, there were 76 murders in New York City. That breaks the previous all-time low of 86 murders set in 2018 — a year that had, until now, stood as the safest start to a year on record. April by itself recorded 19 murders, fewer than any April in the city’s recorded history. The previous April record was 21, set in 2014 and again in 2017.
Shooting incidents in April dropped 18.6% compared to April 2025 (57 vs. 70). The number of people shot dropped 19.3% (67 vs. 83). Citywide major crime — the seven categories the FBI tracks as index crimes — fell 9.5% in April (9,157 incidents vs. 10,114 in April 2025), with 957 fewer reported crimes than the same month a year ago.
What this means for your block
City-level statistics get a lot of headlines but answer the wrong question for most residents. You don’t actually want to know NYC’s murder rate. You want to know whether the things that affect your daily decisions — your walk home from the subway, your kid’s commute to school, whether to leave the car on the street — are getting better or worse on your street.
Here is how to read this month’s data through that lens.
If you commute by car or park on the street: Auto theft fell 20.2% citywide in April (962 vs. 1,205). The Bronx led with a 43.8% drop — about 173 fewer cars stolen than the same month last year — after NYPD detectives took down a Bronx-based theft ring responsible for 252 vehicle thefts totaling $1.2 million in stolen property. Burglary dropped 21.5% citywide (827 vs. 1,053), the fewest April burglaries in recorded history. If you’ve been on edge about leaving your apartment empty or your car at the curb, the data this month is on your side.
If you take the subway: Transit crime in April rose 1.2% — just two more incidents than April 2025 (173 vs. 171). For the year so far, transit crime is down 0.6% (711 vs. 715). That is essentially flat. The subway is statistically about as safe as it was a year ago, and last year was the safest year on the subway since 2009 outside the pandemic years, per the Q1 release on nyc.gov. If a friend tells you the subway is more dangerous than it was a year ago, the numbers do not back that up.
If you shop or work retail: Retail theft fell 17.7% in April (3,680 vs. 4,471). That is the continuation of a year-long pattern — Q1 retail theft was down 20.1% citywide with declines in every borough. The NYPD attributes this to sustained investigation at high-loss locations rather than pass-through enforcement. The practical translation: you are less likely to walk into a store where staff are managing an active theft.
If you live in NYCHA public housing: This is where the data is the most lopsided in a good direction. Year-to-date overall crime in public housing is down 8.7% (1,721 vs. 1,886). Murders are down 41.7% (7 vs. 12). Shooting incidents are down 26.8% (30 vs. 41). Robberies are down 23.7% (225 vs. 295). NYPD calls this the safest start to any year on record in public housing. April alone saw a 16.7% drop in overall NYCHA crime.
The number that went up — and the part most coverage skips
Reported rape rose 10.1% in April compared to April 2025 (186 vs. 169). Year-to-date, reported rape is up 10.4% (711 vs. 644). This is the one category moving in the wrong direction, and it is the category where the raw number understates and overstates the situation at the same time. Here is why.
In September 2024, New York State passed the Rape is Rape Act, which broadened the legal definition of rape to include forms of sexual assault that were not previously counted as rape under state law. Per the NYPD’s own breakdown of the April numbers, 23% of all reported rapes in April 2026 (43 incidents) were classified as rape only because of the expanded definition. Another 45.7% of April 2026 reports (85 incidents) describe incidents that occurred outside of April 2026 — meaning the report was filed this month, but the underlying incident happened in a prior period, sometimes years earlier.
Translation: the year-over-year increase in reported rape is mostly a combination of (a) the law catching up to count assaults that should always have been counted, and (b) survivors coming forward to report incidents from past years. It is not the same statistical signal as a 10% spike in stranger attacks. That distinction matters if you are trying to read this data as a measure of current daily risk.
None of that means rape is decreasing in NYC. The NYPD itself notes rape remains underreported and continues to encourage survivors to come forward via the 24-hour Special Victims hotline (212-267-RAPE). The point is that the year-over-year number is being driven by reporting and definition changes as much as by underlying incidents, and any honest read of the data has to say so.
The historical anchor — how this compares to NYC’s prior low
This is where the city-level numbers actually do matter to a resident, because they put your daily risk in a context that goes back decades.
The prior all-time low for first-quarter murders in NYC was 60, set in 2018. The 2026 Q1 figure of 54 broke that record. The prior all-time low for first-four-months murders was 86, also set in 2018. The 2026 figure of 76 broke that too. 2018 itself was a year city officials at the time called historic — fewer than 300 murders in a calendar year for only the second time since the 1950s. The fact that 2026 is now pacing below 2018 means New York is, on the homicide measure that gets the most attention, statistically the safest it has been since World War II–era policing data was being kept.
The shooting numbers tell a similar story. 2025 was the safest year on record for shooting incidents in NYC. 2026 is tracking with that record so far — 139 shooting incidents in Q1, exactly tied with the Q1 2025 record. April’s 18.6% drop in shooting incidents suggests the trend continues into the second quarter.
One borough is leading. The Bronx is down 15.5% in major crime for April and 10.7% year-to-date — the steepest decline of any borough. Bronx shooting incidents are down 58.1% compared to April 2025. Staten Island has had zero murders so far in 2026.
What the data does not tell you
Citywide and borough-level numbers are averages. They obscure what is happening on your specific block, in your specific precinct, on your specific subway line at the specific hour you ride it. A 9.5% citywide drop in major crime is not a guarantee that crime is down on your corner. The honest answer is that some precincts are improving faster than the city average and some are improving slower or not at all.
If you want precinct-level numbers, the NYPD publishes them on the Borough and Precinct Crime Statistics page and updates them weekly. CompStat 2.0 at compstat.nypdonline.org lets you pull the same numbers for your own precinct over multiple years. That is the resident-level decode the citywide press releases do not give you.
The bottom line for daily decisions
If you’ve been delaying a decision because of a vague sense that crime is up in NYC — taking a job in a new neighborhood, signing a lease somewhere you have not lived before, letting your kid take the train alone — the April 2026 data does not support waiting. On the metrics that matter for daily life, the city is at or near record lows, the trend is moving in the right direction for the fifth consecutive quarter, and the one rising category is being driven substantially by reporting and legal-definition changes rather than by underlying incidents.
If you’ve been ignoring crime data because you assumed it was being spun, the underlying CompStat figures hold up on direct inspection. We pulled them. They check out.
Either way, the question to ask is not “is NYC safe.” It is “is my precinct safe, on the days and at the hours I’m out, doing the things I do.” The city data is the starting point. CompStat 2.0 is the next step.
Sources used in this article
- NYPD Press Release PR007, May 4, 2026 — Fewest Murders in Recorded History for First Four Months and April
- NYPD Press Release PR006, April 2, 2026 — Fewest Murders and Shooting Incidents for First Three Months of the Year
- NYPD Citywide Crime Statistics weekly reports — nyc.gov
- NYPD CompStat 2.0 (precinct-level data) — compstat.nypdonline.org
Frequently asked questions
Is crime in NYC actually going down in 2026?
Yes. Per NYPD CompStat data released May 4, 2026, major crime fell 9.5% in April 2026 versus April 2025, and is down for the year-to-date in all five boroughs, transit, and public housing. Murders are at an all-time low for both Q1 and the first four months of any year in recorded city history.
Why is reported rape up if other crime is down?
The state Rape is Rape Act, passed in September 2024, broadened the legal definition of rape to include additional forms of sexual assault that were not previously counted. Per NYPD, 23% of April 2026 reported rapes were classified as rape only because of the expanded definition, and 45.7% involved incidents that occurred outside of April 2026. The increase reflects definition changes and delayed reporting in addition to underlying incidents.
Is the subway less safe than a year ago?
No. Subway crime in April 2026 was up by only two incidents versus April 2025 (173 vs. 171), and year-to-date transit crime is down 0.6%. Last year was the safest year on the subway since 2009 outside the pandemic years.
How does 2026 compare to 2018, the prior record low?
2026 is below 2018 on both Q1 and first-four-month murder totals. The Q1 2026 figure was 54 murders versus 60 in Q1 2018. The first-four-months 2026 figure was 76 versus 86 in 2018.
Where can I see crime data for my specific precinct?
NYPD CompStat 2.0 at compstat.nypdonline.org lets you pull weekly and historical data for any of the city’s 77 precincts. The Borough and Precinct Crime Statistics page on nyc.gov links the weekly precinct-level PDFs.
