New York City marked a stark decline in gun violence in 2025, with the fewest shooting incidents and shooting victims ever recorded, the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced in a press release this week. Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said the results reflect sustained, data-driven enforcement strategies and broad collaboration with community partners, signaling a major milestone in the city’s increased effort to reduce violent crime.
According to the NYPD data, the city reported 688 shooting incidents in 2025, a 24 percent decrease from the 904 incidents recorded the previous year and the lowest total on record. This decline surpassed the previous record low of 754 shootings in 2018. Similarly, the number of people shot dropped to 856, down 22 percent from 1,103 in 2024 and also the fewest ever recorded. The reductions occurred across all five boroughs, with Manhattan seeing a 38 percent decline and Staten Island a 27 percent decrease, while Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx each set historic lows in shooting incidents.
Commissioner Tisch described the results as “unprecedented” and credited the NYPD’s precision policing strategy, which included targeted deployments to areas with high crime and a focused effort to remove illegal firearms from the streets. NYPD officers seized more than 5,293 illegal guns in 2025, and detectives carried out 70 gang-related takedowns, removing some of the most dangerous individuals from communities.
The year ended with December posting only 35 shooting incidents citywide, the fewest ever recorded in a single month. Comparisons to other large cities underscore the scale of the achievement: Chicago, with roughly one-third of New York’s population, recorded more than 1,400 shootings over the same period, while Philadelphia recorded more than 825 incidents despite being far smaller.
The NYPD’s broader crime statistics for 2025 also painted a picture of sustained declines in multiple categories. Murders fell 20 percent from 382 in 2024 to 305 in 2025, and robberies declined nearly 10 percent. Burglary dropped nearly 4 percent, and auto theft fell 5 percent. Transit crime — including subway shootings, transit robberies and pickpocketing — also reached some of its lowest levels in years.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised the achievements as critical to the city’s safety and highlighted the importance of continued partnerships between law enforcement, community organizations and state leadership. “New York City had its safest year for gun violence ever,” Mamdani said in the NYPD announcement, emphasizing that the work is far from complete and that continued, collaborative efforts will be necessary to sustain and deepen these gains.
Governor Kathy Hochul also weighed in, noting the state’s investments of more than $3 billion in public safety and crime prevention and calling the results a sign that “crime has fallen to record lows, making New York a safer place to live, work and visit.”
Despite the dramatic overall decline, the NYPD’s report did acknowledge troubling trends, including a rise in reported rape incidents, partially attributed to changes in the legal definition of rape in New York and a slight increase in felony assault over the year. Additionally, while shooting incidents and gun violence dropped sharply, youth involvement in violence remains an area of concern, prompting new strategies such as School Safety Zones and expanded prevention efforts aimed at reducing risk in and around schools.
Still, for many New Yorkers, the statistics represent real change on the ground that has led to fewer gunshots echoing through neighborhoods, greater confidence riding the subway, and a sense that public safety initiatives can produce lasting results when strategy is driven by data and cooperation between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
