New York City had 290 murders last year, the lowest number in nearly 70 years

One has to go back to 1951 to find fewer. There were just 243 homicides that year, according to police records, the subway was a dollar and the Brooklyn Dodgers were still playing at Ebbets Field.  Uniform crime reports began in 1939; between 1940 and 1944, there were even fewer.

Homicides reached their peak in New York City, in 1990, when 2,245 were committed and the city had 1.2 million fewer people overall. Then murders began to fall, sinking to 335 in 2016.

In 2017, the number of shootings also fell (to 789) as did most other categories of crime, though there were four more rapes reported than the year before.

Police say the decline in crime is due in part to focusing more on larger take downs and less on smaller infractions, and a shift to focus on community-based policing in the city's precincts.

"New York is not the violent nightmare we once read about. It's our home and we're willing to fight for it," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said Friday.

Police officials said there are fewer arrests because officers are working smarter.

"You also have to remember that technology's great. [Automated Vehicle Location], ShotStopper, the mobile phones that police officers have," O'Neill said. "But I think the best thing going for us is the ability of police officers to establish and have relationships with the people in this great city."

Crime was down in most categories except for rape; there were four more rapes reported in 2017 than 2016.

Officials said they would spend 2018 trying to push crime down even lower.

"We can do better," said Chief Dermot Shea, head of crime control strategies.