When Newark Mayor Ras Baraka graduated from high school in 1986, the city reported about 40,000 crimes. Last year, the city said there were just over 8,000 — the lowest number in five decades.
Overall, crime was down 15 percent last year compared to 2017, according to official numbers, with rape and aggravated assault as exceptions.
"These are numbers that need to be touted, need to be expressed, need to be talked about," Baraka said, who added that overall crime has declined every year since he took office in 2014.
Compared to 2013, homicides are down 38 percent and carjackings are down 84 percent, he said.
But experts tend to be skeptical.
"If a politician merely tells you crime is down, do you believe it?" asked Jon Shane, a professor at John Jay College in Manhattan who served on the Newark police force for nearly 20 years.
He said measuring crime is too complicated to take official numbers at face value because police have so much control over record-keeping. That said, Shane said part of what Newark's leaders are trying to do is shake off the narrative that the city had a crime problem in the first place.
"Most of the streets in Newark don't have any crime or any disorder conditions," he said. "And crime is concentrated in small areas and small places among a certain population of offenders. That's the reality."
While outsiders' perception might be keeping some visitors away, real estate developers are continuing to trickle into Newark. Jennifer Mazawey, an attorney who works with developers, said they feel Baraka's administration has been welcoming to them.
"And I think the more people we have, the more business, the more residents, I think the more likely it is that those crime rates go down," Mazawey said.
Most importantly for Newark, Mazawey said the city is changing. And as crime dips, interest in Newark continues to grow.
"Listen it's a slow change, but it's changing," she said.