New York City reports record low murder rate for 2012

New York City officials say that there will be a record low number of murders and shootings in the city in 2012.

As of Friday morning, there have been 414 homicides in 2012 - the previous record low was 471 homicides in 2009.

The number of murders has dropped by 19 percent in comparison to 2011.

There has been a record low 1,353 shootings this year - the previous low for shootings was 1,420 in 2009.  Shootings have decreased by 8.5 percent so far this year compared to 2011 and 14.5 percent since 2001.

Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly released the statistics today at the police department recruit graduation ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

"The number of murders this year will be lower than any time in recorded city history," said Mayor Bloomberg.

The city credits putting more police in high crime areas as a reason for the decline.

City murder statistics date back to 1963 when the city recorded 548 homicides.  The most murders New York City recorded in a single year was 2,245  in 1990.

Guns remained the leading cause of murder but they are down 20 percent.

City officials say that if New York City had Chicago's murder rate, New York City would have a total of more than 1,400 murders this year.  Chicago marked its 500th murder of the year this week.

If New York City had Detroit's murder rate, New York City would have nearly 4,400 murders this year.