Proving yet again that smart policing makes a huge difference, the NYPD in 2016 delivered record lows in crime — continuing a decades-long local trend even as other major US cities lost ground.

The numbers are stunning:

 “Index crime” — the total number of incidents in seven major-offense categories — fell 4.1 percent, to a record low of 101,606. Of those categories, only felony assaults saw a slight rise, up 2 percent.
 Every borough, and most precincts, saw index-crime drops.
 Most impressive: a 12 percent dip in shootings, putting the total at 998 — the first time it fell below 1,000 since the department started collecting stats in the early ’90s.
 Homicides also fell 4.8 percent — to 335, versus 352 in 2015 — a hair above the modern low of 333 in 2014.
But this isn’t merely about numbers; it’s about lives saved, property protected — and giving New Yorkers the peace of mind to go about their daily lives, knowing they’re safe.

This, when cities from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to Baltimore face major crime spikes. Chicago’s murder rate last year was six times New York’s.

Behind the NYPD’s latest success is what Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea terms a “confluence” of changes: better community engagement under new Commissioner James O’Neill’s “neighborhood policing” initiative, the hiring of 2,000 more cops and greater use of new technology.

It all helps enable “precision policing,” which focuses on hard-core bad guys, as well as a sustained anti-gun effort to, as Shea puts it, make illegal firearms “radioactive.”

Thanks go to the leadership of former Commissioner Bill Bratton and O’Neill, and to the work of the entire force, from other top brass to every cop on the beat.

And ex-Commissioner Ray Kelly, who in 2013 handed over the most professional force in NYPD history.

And, yes, to Mayor de Blasio — who lets New York’s Finest continue to work miracles. For all his past stumbles, the history-making comes on his watch.

Above all, kudos to the men and women in blue for a vital job well done.

SOURCE: The New York Post