The most critical question facing Mike Bloomberg when he took office nearly eight years ago was: Could he keep New York City safe?
Could he maintain the astonishing drop in crime rates achieved under his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani?
The answer’s clear: Not only has that historic reduction been preserved, it has been surpassed; New York’s crime rate is down to levels not seen since the 1960s.
Mike and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly drove down crime in the city an additional 30 percent. Indeed, over the last eight years, murders are down 19 percent, rapes 33 percent, robberies 20 percent and felonious assaults 29 percent.
And since 1990, when New Yorkers were too terrified to walk the streets in daytime (let alone at night), the numbers are even more astonishing: Murders are down 77 percent, rapes 58 percent, robberies 78 percent and felonious assaults 63 percent.
Post-Giuliani, in other words, the city has not let up in the battle for law and order — and, in fact, it’s winning spectacularly. New Yorkers don’t just feel safer; they feel safe — period.
This, despite the need for the redeployment, post-9/11, of more than 1,000 officers to counterterrorism efforts.
To that end, the NYPD has sent officers overseas to work with foreign intelligence agencies, set up surveillance cameras and license-plate readers throughout the city and monitored underwater tunnels. Thanks to such vigilance, there has been no terrorist attack here since 9/11.
Bloomberg and Kelly have endured much criticism on so-called “stop-and-frisk” tactics — which have been derided by the anti-cop extremists but are invaluable in the war against crime.
Indeed, over the years, “stop-and-frisk” has been the most effective means of getting illegal guns off the street — and a thorough 2007 analysis of some half a million such cases by the RAND Corporation showed conclusively that there is no racial profiling involved.
That shouldn’t surprise: Bloomberg and Kelly have taken great pains to reach out to minority communities. As a result, racial tensions in the city are down, particularly regarding relations with cops.
This is not to say that things are perfect.
But when it comes to keeping the streets safe — a fundamental responsibility of any government — Mike Bloomberg got the job done.