New York, NY – New York City recorded fewer than 500 homicides in 2007, the lowest number in over four decades.
A preliminary tally of recorded homicides was 494 as of midnight Monday, police said today.
That number could change if a 2007 death is determined to be a homicide up until Jan. 15, said police spokesman Paul J. Browne.
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The homicide count is the lowest number since reliable record-keeping started in 1963. There were 596 homicides for all of 2006.
Crime has plummeted since 1990 when homicides reached an all-time high of 2,224, making New York the murder capital of the nation.
Joseph A. Pollini, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, called the decline dramatic. "It's phenomenal," he told The New York Times. "It's sort of unheard of." [AP]