Crime in America and New York City

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Officer Miller, and I am a proud member of the New York Police Department. I have been asked to speak to you today about crime in America and specifically in New York City. Crime in the United States is a complicated issue with different factors leading to it. In recent years, crime has declined in many major cities across the country, but certain types of crime remain a major challenge. I think we need to discuss some of the key points: Why crime is on the rise in America.

Let me start by stating that the issue of crime is one that affects us all. However, despite this decrease in many other crimes, we still face many challenges in keeping our communities safe. Since the pandemic in 2020, we have all been through a lot, and even as other crimes fell, murders spiked by 30%, which is the biggest jump in our history. And it doesn't stop there, homicides kept going up in many areas in America in 2021. Even in New York, one of America's safest cities, murders have risen by 47%. In 2022, there is no certain number of decreasing homicides in the country. Despite the many scary headlines, New York is still one of the safest cities in the United States. Although you hear about a lot of bad things, crime is still a lot lower than it was in 1990, where as many as 2000 people were murdered in that one year. In the next thirty years, violence began to decline due to new policing skills. In 2019, the number of murders was only 319, 85% lower than before. Compared to cities like Chicago and Detroit, whose populations are smaller than New York, the murder rate in New York is very low.