page_title: Crime in New York City
section_title: David Dinkins
hierarchical_section_title: Crime in New York City / Administration / Mayors / David Dinkins
caption_attribution_description: English: :David Dinkins at The Citizens Committee for New York City's "New Yorker for New York City" Gala Honoring Nine passionate Champions of the City's Neighborhoods.
context_page_description: Crime rates in New York City spiked in the 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic hit, but they have been dropping since 1991, and, as of 2017, they are among the lowest of major cities in the United States.
  During the 1990s, the New York City Police Department adopted CompStat, broken windows policing, and other strategies in a major effort to reduce crime. The city's dramatic drop in crime has been variously attributed to a number of factors, including the end of the crack epidemic, the legalization of abortion, the increased incarceration rate, and the decline of lead poisoning in children.
  In a 2015 ranking of 50 cities around the world by The Economist, New York was judged the 10th safest city overall, as well as the 28th safest in personal safety. In 2018, there were 289 homicides—the lowest number since the 1940s.
context_section_description: The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, made consecutive declines during the last 36 months of his four-year term, ending a 30-year upward spiral and initiating a trend of falling rates that continued beyond his term. Despite the actual abating of crime, Dinkins was hurt by the perception that crime was out of control during his administration. Dinkins also initiated a hiring program that expanded the police department nearly 25%. The New York Times reported, "He obtained the State Legislature's permission to dedicate a tax to hire thousands of police officers, and he fought to preserve a portion of that anticrime money to keep schools open into the evening, an award-winning initiative that kept tens of thousands of teenagers off the street."
caption: David Dinkins
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