The number of homicides and shootings continued to drop in 2016 while felony assaults rose slightly across the Big Apple, new NYPD statistics show.
Murders were down 4.8 percent to 335 from 352 in 2015. Shootings dipped below 1,000 for the first time since records have been kept, to 998 – down 12 percent from the previous year.
Crimes in the seven major categories were down 4.8 percent in all five boroughs compared with 2015, except for felony assault, which ticked up 2 percent.
Arrests also dipped 7 percent in 2016 compared with the previous year, statistics show.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea credited the overall drop in crime to neighborhood policing as well as beefing up the force with 2,000 cops and new technological advances.