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New York City just logged some of its lowest crime numbers on record, according to newly released NYPD data. But there’s one place where things are heading in the opposite direction: the subway.
Major crime across the city fell 12.7-percent in July compared with the same month last year, dropping from 11,367 incidents to 9,919. All seven major crime categories declined, and every borough saw an improvement. For the first seven months of 2026, major crime is down 6.6-percent overall.
The numbers are especially striking when it comes to shootings and murders. Through July, the city recorded 381 shooting incidents, 462 shooting victims and 149 murders—the lowest totals for the first seven months of a year in recorded NYPD history. July alone saw 59 shootings and 21 murders, also record lows for the month.
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“This summer, the NYPD was called upon to manage an unprecedented series of major and overlapping events,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, citing everything from the World Cup to Fourth of July celebrations. She credited the department’s “data-driven precision policing strategy” and its officers for the declines.
The one catch: underground. Major crime in the transit system rose 10.9-percent in July, with 173 incidents compared with 156 last July. Year to date, the increase is much smaller—just 1-percent, from 1,265 crimes to 1,279—but it nevertheless runs counter to the broader citywide trend. There were no murders in the transit system in July.
The increase was largely driven by felony assaults and grand larcenies. Of July’s transit crimes, 88 were grand larcenies and 47 were felony assaults. The NYPD says thefts of unattended items more than doubled from 13 last July to 27 this July, while pickpocketing jumped from eight incidents to 18. Felony assaults against elderly riders also rose sharply, from four last July to 10 this year.
Elsewhere, the Bronx posted the city’s largest year-to-date decline in major crime, falling 12.5-percent. Public housing developments also recorded historic lows in murders, shootings, shooting victims and robberies through July, although major crime in public housing rose 3.5-percent during July itself.
In other words, the citywide numbers are moving decidedly downward. The subway, for now, is the notable exception.