Mayor Credits Crime Drop to Better Police and Community Relations

Major crime in the city is down 4.4 percent from last year, with last August the safest months in two decades. Since then, homicides have stayed low. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton credit the drop in crime to increasing cooperation between communities and law enforcement.

Flanked by the police Commissioner at the Ingersoll Houses near downtown Brooklyn where crime is down 18 percent, de Blasio called the crime numbers "extraordinary" and "proof of real progress."

"We know that real change is achieved by working closely with the community, finding out what the community believes will work, what the community needs, adapting our strategies, creating that kind of partnership," de Blasio said.

As of Nov. 30, there have been 21 fewer murders than last year, 37 fewer rapes, 2,600 fewer burglaries, 1,400 fewer incidents of grand larceny. But there has been 290 more auto thefts.

The de Blasio adminstration has invested $210 million to make 15 public housing developments safer, but crime was only reduced at 10 of the 15 complexes.