NYC Reports Lowest Murders, Shootings in Decades, More Hate Crimes

NEW YORK CITY—New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch announced that the city had fewer murders and shooting incidents in the first quarter of 2026 than in any prior first quarter in recorded history.

The city recorded 54 murders during the first three months of 2026, fewer than the previous low of 60 murders in 2018.

They also announced an 11 percent jump in hate crimes in the same timeframe. Jews and Muslims were the most frequent victims; a majority of hate crimes, 78 of 143, targeted Jews.

“This is a city where everyone who lives here should know that they belong,” Mamdani said on April 2. “There is no person of any faith that should ever be made to feel that this is not their home.”

Types of crimes classified as hate crimes vary in severity from just drawing a symbol, such as a swastika, on a wall to acts of violence. Hate crimes against Muslims in New York City increased in 2026 to 12 confirmed incidents in the first quarter from five incidents in the first quarter of 2025.

A recent case received public attention on March 27, when the FBI informed New York City-based Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani that they had disrupted a plot to kill her. Alexander Heifler, of New Jersey, was arrested and charged with plotting to firebomb Kiswani’s home in Brooklyn.

In March 2026, the New York Police Department adjusted the data tracking hate crimes to publish data of both confirmed hate crimes and cases that have been reported as hate crimes but not yet confirmed. Tisch said the goal was to improve transparency.

Tisch praised frontline officers of the NYPD, crediting a precision policing strategy with helping bring major crime down by 5 percent across all five boroughs. In the Bronx, crime dropped by 9.4 percent.

The release of the new crime stats comes one day after a 7-month-old baby was killed in Brooklyn by a stray bullet. She was inside a stroller when a man on a moped shot at a group of people on a Brooklyn sidewalk, authorities said. Police are investigating the shooting as gang-related, and the child was an unintended victim, police said.

In an effort to deter criminals, the NYPD has been sending out 1,800 uniformed officers on nightly foot posts in 34 precincts as well as public housing and the subway system.

“These results are not happening by chance,” Tisch said on April 2. “They are driven by a precision policing strategy: Going after the guns, taking down the violent gangs, putting officers on foot posts where they are needed most and when they are needed most.”

In the first three months of 2026, there were 1,000 fewer robberies than in the same period in 2024—2,941 compared with 3,983.

Citywide, theft from retailers—10,973 incidents—in 2026 is down 20.1 percent, from 13,738 incidents in the first quarter of 2025. Burglaries—2,587 incidents in 2026—are down 20.6 percent, from 3,259 in 2025.

Tisch said crime in public housing, including murders, shooting incidents, and robberies, is down by 7 percent, to 1,266 incidents, from 1,364 last year.

She also highlighted improvements in safety on subways, announcing a 1.3 percent decrease in overall subway crime compared with 2025—the safest year since 2009, not counting the years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.