The latest NYPD CompStat numbers are out, and if you live in New York City, here is the headline you actually need: through May 17, 2026, major crime in NYC is down 6.23% compared to the same period last year. Murders are down 25.2%. Burglaries are down 19.2%. Shootings are down 9.9%. The city you walked out into this morning is statistically safer than the one you walked out into in May 2025.
That is the decode. The question every resident actually asks when they see a crime headline is some version of: “Should I be worried about my block?” The latest data from the NYPD CompStat Unit, covering the week of 5/11/2026 through 5/17/2026, gives a clear answer for most of the city — and a more nuanced one for a few specific categories. Here is what the numbers mean for your daily decisions, without the jargon and without the spin.
What the May 2026 CompStat Report Actually Says
The NYPD publishes a weekly citywide CompStat report. The most recent edition, Volume 33, Number 20, covers the week ending Sunday, May 17, 2026. Here are the year-to-date totals through that date, comparing 2026 to the same period in 2025:
- Murder: 89 in 2026 vs. 119 in 2025 — down 25.2%
- Rape (NYS Penal Law definition): 812 vs. 757 — up 7.3%
- Robbery: 4,682 vs. 5,231 — down 10.5%
- Felony Assault: 10,644 vs. 10,714 — down 0.7%
- Burglary: 3,927 vs. 4,858 — down 19.2%
- Grand Larceny: 16,031 vs. 16,721 — down 4.1%
- Grand Larceny Auto: 4,218 vs. 4,688 — down 10.0%
- Total Index Crime: 40,403 vs. 43,088 — down 6.23%
Shootings track separately. There were 254 shooting victims year-to-date in 2026, compared to 282 in 2025 — a 9.9% decline. Shooting incidents fell from 238 to 218, an 8.4% decline. For the most recent 28-day window, shootings dropped even more sharply: 52 victims compared to 82 last year, a 36.6% decrease.
The Resident Translation: What This Means for Your Block
Headline percentages do not tell you whether your specific block has gotten safer. What they do tell you is the direction of travel for the city as a whole. And that direction matters for three concrete decisions most New Yorkers make every week.
Decision 1: Should I take the subway home late, or pay for a ride? Transit crime year-to-date sits at 816 incidents in 2026 versus 814 in 2025 — essentially flat (up 0.2%). For the most recent 28-day period, transit crime is up 8.6% (177 vs. 163). Subway crime is not driving the citywide decline, but it is also not the spike some headlines suggest. The 28-day uptick is worth noting if you ride late at night, but year-to-date the system is in line with last year — which was the safest year on the subway since 2009 excluding the pandemic, according to the NYPD’s Q1 press release.
Decision 2: Should I worry about my apartment getting broken into? Burglary is the standout decline of 2026. Year-to-date, burglaries are down 19.2% citywide. That is on track with the 20.6% Q1 decline the NYPD attributed to its Precision Task Force approach, which coordinates patrol officers, detectives, and crime analysts on burglary patterns. Residential burglaries reached record lows in Q1. If burglary was your top concern, the data says the risk has measurably decreased.
Decision 3: Should I worry about car theft? Grand larceny auto is down 10.0% year-to-date and down 23.0% over the most recent 28 days. For the week of May 11–17 alone, auto theft fell 19.0% compared to the same week last year. That is a meaningful drop, though parking decisions remain block-specific — auto theft concentration varies precinct by precinct, which is why the NYPD publishes borough and precinct-level CompStat reports alongside the citywide totals.
The Categories That Are Not Down
Honest decode means flagging where the numbers are not improving. Two categories stand out.
Rape reports are up 7.3% year-to-date under New York State Penal Law definitions, with the UCR (FBI Uniform Crime Reporting) measure up 6.3%. The NYPD’s official explanation, repeated in the Q1 2026 press release, attributes part of this rise to legislative changes enacted in September 2024 that broadened the legal definition of rape in New York State to include additional forms of sexual assault. The department also says it has enhanced its work with advocates to encourage survivors to come forward. Resident takeaway: the rise reflects both a broader legal definition and more reporting — not necessarily a parallel rise in incidents. Rape remains underreported. The NYPD Special Victims Division hotline is 212-267-RAPE (7273).
Hate crimes are up 6.6% year-to-date citywide (243 in 2026 vs. 228 in 2025). For the most recent 28-day period the increase is sharper — up 40.8% (69 vs. 49). In the NYPD’s Q1 press release, Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch confirmed that more than half of all confirmed hate crimes in Q1 2026 (78 of 143, or 55%) were anti-Jewish, despite Jewish New Yorkers making up approximately 10% of the city’s population. The NYPD now publishes both confirmed and reported hate crime figures monthly to improve transparency. If you experience or witness a possible hate crime, the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force takes reports at 646-610-5267.
Historical Perspective: How 2026 Compares to the Long Arc
One of the most useful things the weekly CompStat report does — and most news coverage strips out — is the historical comparison columns. Here is where 2026 sits against three reference points the NYPD itself publishes:
- 2-year change (vs. 2024 YTD): Murder down 35.0%, robbery down 23.2%, burglary down 18.7%, total index crime down 9.98%.
- 16-year change (vs. 2010 YTD): Murder down 48.0%, robbery down 29.0%, burglary down 39.4%, total index crime up 10.97% (driven primarily by grand larceny and felony assault expansion).
- 33-year change (vs. 1993 YTD): Murder down 87.5%, robbery down 85.0%, burglary down 89.3%, total index crime down 74.11%.
For context, in 1990 NYC recorded 2,262 murders for the full year. In 2025 the full-year total was 309. The current 2026 year-to-date pace of 89 murders through May 17 puts the city on track to potentially break the modern low set in 2018 (295 murders) — a trend the NYPD attributed in its April 2 press release to the Winter Violence Reduction Plan, which deploys up to 1,800 uniformed officers on nightly foot posts across 64 zones in 34 precincts.
What This Means For Your Daily Decisions This Week
The honest resident answer to “should I be worried about my block?” sounds like this:
If your top concern is violent crime — murder, shooting, robbery — the citywide data shows the lowest year-to-date numbers in modern record-keeping. Q1 2026 produced the fewest murders ever recorded for a first quarter (54), beating the previous low of 60 set in 2018. Shooting incidents tied the all-time Q1 low of 139 set in 2025.
If your top concern is property crime — burglary, auto theft, grand larceny — burglary and auto theft are down by double digits citywide. Grand larceny is down 4.1%. Retail theft is down 19.6% year-to-date over a 2-year window.
If your top concern is hate crime or sexual assault — both reported categories are up. For hate crimes, the increase is concentrated in specific bias categories, and you should know the reporting line. For rape, the increase reflects in part a broader legal definition and more survivor reporting.
The most useful thing you can do with the citywide numbers is treat them as a baseline, then check your specific precinct. The NYPD publishes precinct-level CompStat reports weekly, and the interactive CompStat 2.0 portal lets you pull the same data for your specific patrol zone. Both are free, public, and updated weekly.
Where to Verify These Numbers Yourself
Every figure in this article comes from the NYPD’s official weekly CompStat report covering the week ending May 17, 2026, or from the NYPD’s April 2, 2026 press release. The two primary sources are:
- NYPD Citywide Crime Statistics page — links to the current week’s PDF and Excel reports, updated weekly.
- NYPD Q1 2026 press release, April 2, 2026.
If a number in another news story does not match these, the primary source is the one to trust. The CompStat report notes that all figures are preliminary and subject to further analysis and revision — small adjustments happen as cases are reclassified. The direction and magnitude of the trends, however, are clear: through the third week of May 2026, New York City is on pace for another historically safe year, with most major categories down and two — rape and hate crime — moving in the opposite direction for reasons the NYPD has explained on the record.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NYC crime up or down in 2026? Through May 17, 2026, total major index crime is down 6.23% year-to-date compared to 2025, according to the NYPD CompStat Unit’s weekly citywide report.
How many murders has NYC had in 2026? 89 murders year-to-date through May 17, 2026, down from 119 over the same period in 2025 — a 25.2% decline.
Is the NYC subway safer in 2026? Year-to-date transit crime through May 17, 2026 is essentially flat at 816 incidents versus 814 in 2025 (+0.2%). The most recent 28-day window shows a 8.6% increase. Q1 2026 subway crime was down 1.3% versus Q1 2025.
Where can I check crime in my specific NYC neighborhood? Use the NYPD CompStat 2.0 portal to pull statistics by precinct. The NYPD also publishes borough and precinct PDF reports updated weekly.
Why are reported rapes up in NYC in 2026? The NYPD attributes part of the 7.3% year-to-date increase to a September 2024 legislative change that broadened the New York State Penal Law definition of rape, plus increased survivor reporting. The NYPD Special Victims Division hotline is 212-267-RAPE (7273).
Are hate crimes increasing in NYC? Yes. Year-to-date confirmed hate crimes are up 6.6% (243 vs. 228). In Q1 2026, the NYPD reported that 55% of confirmed hate crimes were anti-Jewish. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force takes reports at 646-610-5267.
