Maybe even criminals don’t like to go out in the cold.
New York City crime is down for 2014 compared with 2013, according to statistics put out by the NYPD through CompStat.
There have been 42 murders from the start of the year until February 23, compared to 48 in 2013, a decrease of 12.5%. Compared with 2001, murder is down 57.6% and 85.9% from 1993.
Homicide is not the only crime that has decreased; in fact, only rape, felony assault, and grand theft auto are up from the same period in 2013. Felonies as a whole are down 1.5% through February 23, 2014.
There have been 190 rapes so far in 2014, compared with 184 in 2013, an increase of 3.3%. February 17-23 alone had 30 rapes, compared with just 21 rapes in the same period in 2013.
Grand theft auto increased from 901 in 2013 to 1,003 in 2014, an 11.3% increase. Felony assault also increased from 2,518 in 2013 to 2,681 in 2014, a 6.5% increase.
Robbery, burglary, and grand larceny all decreased. Shooting incidents were down 13.3 percent from the same period in 2013, and there were 16% less shooting victims than during the same period last year. That’s an 84% decrease from 1993.
Meanwhile, according to a report in The New York Times, arrests of panhandlers has tripled since the same period last year. Police recorded 274 panhandler arrests in the first two months of 2014, compared to 90 arrests in the same period in 2013.
