According to recent statistics, the month of July 2025 was marked as an extraordinarily secure period in the history of New York City. An impressive decline in severe offences and a record-breaking low in shooting incidents cemented its reputation as one of the most secure summer months the city has ever seen. Rather than a crime wave typical of NYC summers, it was more akin to a mild disturbance in crime activity.
Officially released data by the New York Police Department indicated that not only was July 2025 notably safer than its predecessors, but it was also amongst the safest since the city embarked on tracking crime. A thorough analysis of crime within the city’s five boroughs exposed an all-time low in shooting incidents during that month, counting only 75 incidents with 92 victims.
Compared to July 2017’s then-record of 79 incidents and 102 victims, the drop was substantial. However, it wasn’t limited to a single month. The crime reports from the initial seven months of 2025 set a new record with the fewest number of shootings (412) and victims (489) since the NYPD initiated its tracking back in the 90s.
Another notable dip occurred during the historically challenging Fourth of July weekend, infamous for its potential for escalating gun violence. The weekend of 2025 recorded the lowest instances of shootings ever for the holiday period, matching the all-time low of the day itself.
In the grand scheme of things, July saw a decrease in major crimes by 5.6-percent compared to the previous year, which happens to be the consecutive tenth month reflecting a downward trend. Murder rates decline drastically, with numbers nearly halving from 49 to 25. Meanwhile, burglaries saw a dip by 14.2-percent, robberies by 7.5-percent, and severe physical assaults plummeted by 8.1-percent.
When examining the subway, July’s crime statistics hit an all-time low, excluding the unusually quiet summers of 2020-2021 due to pandemic-induced reduced ridership. The Mayor Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch ascribe these improvements to the city’s implementation of ‘precision policing’ as well as the Summer Violence Reduction Plan.
Since May, these improvements have been supported by an NYPD initiative that has assigned more than 2,000 uniformed officers across 72 ‘summer zones’ within precincts, public housing, and transit hubs. The focus of this initiative is to zero in on crime hot spots that need more attention. The result is laudable: major crime in these zones has plummeted over 20-percent during deployment hours, and shootings have been halved.
Gun control has been a significant focus area for the NYPD. This year, over 3,000 illegal firearms have been confiscated, amounting to a total of 22,900 since Adams assumed office. The crackdown on gangs has correspondingly seen an increase, with 2025 witnessing 48 major busts that led to 347 arrests and 236 confiscated firearms.
Unfortunately, not every crime stat followed this decreasing trend. Reports of rape registered a 33-percent growth year-over-year in July. Policymakers have linked this increase primarily to legislative changes enacted last fall, expanding the legal definition of rape to cover a wider spectrum of sexual offence types. However, authorities are eager to emphasize the macroscopic perspective of the situation.
Mayor Adams was quick to remind everyone, ‘This is the safest big city in America.’ He emphasized that despite attention-grabbing incidents like the mass shooting which occurred in Midtown the previous week, those events were anomalous amidst a general backdrop of historically low crime rates.
The city, which was historically known for trouble flaring up during the summer heat, has begun to reverse this trend in 2025. The latest data suggests that New York City may finally be countering the cycle, thereby offering a safer season for its denizens to enjoy.
The post Historic Decline in Crime: New York City’s Safest July in 2025 appeared first on Real News Now.
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