Bratton: Subway system, city safer than ever

NYPD reported a 15 percent drop in major crimes in the city’s subway system, reporting only two homicides in 2014.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced another year of crime rates falling overall and inside the city’s subway infrastructure.

“You have a one in one million chance of being the victim of a serious crime on the subways of New York,” Bratton said.

Bratton, who served as the chief of transit police in 1990, told reporters that the city handled 3.5 million riders a day and reported an average of 50 major crimes a day.

Over the last year, NYPD reported an average of six crimes a day on a system that now serves 5.5 to 6 million riders, Bratton said.

The commissioner was steadfast in his support for the Broken Windows theory of policing that he instituted during his first turn as commissioner for the city, whereby arrests for smaller offenses are thought to prevent more severe crimes down the road.

“Broken Windows is here to stay,” he told reporters. “Stop question and frisk is here to stay.”

Before Bratton was even appointed commissioner, he was tasked by de Blasio to bring down the number of stop-and-frisks after ongoing complaints that it unfairly targeted black and Latino communities.

In 2014, the number of stop-and-frisks dropped for a third year in a row, now below 100,000 stops. And of those that were stopped, a higher percentage of stops resulted in arrest, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Dermot Shea said.

Statistics also revealed that about 20 percent of all murders and shootings were reported to take place in public housing. Shea added that most shooting victims were men between ages of 18 and 24.

Despite the overall drop in crime, some parts of the city saw spikes.

The Bronx saw a 6 percent jump in shootings, although Shea said the overall trend for shootings in the borough is declining.

Staten Island experienced 15 murders in 2014, compared to seven in 2013, which Bratton said was an aberration.

“A lot to be done, but we have momentum,” de Blasio said.