New York recession claiming fewer murders

There were days upon days in New York City when not a single person was murdered in 2009. Two such stretches, in February and March, lasted nearly a week each.

Since the New York Police Department started tracking homicides (since 1962), there have been rises — the homicide rate peaked in 1990 at 2,245 — and subsequent falls. As of Dec. 27, there were 461 murders; the current record low happened in 2007, when there were 496.

And what's ironic is that with the city facing a $4.1 billion budget deficit, the police force — which has seen its head count reduced by 6,000 officers since 2001 — may have to shrink further.

According to the F.B.I. uniform crime report for the first half of 2009, murders fell 10 percent nationwide compared with the same period in 2008. But New York showed a 19 percent decline in murders, the report said.

In examining the city’s 461 homicides this year, much can be learned about how the New York police count murder victims. For instance, homicides caused by negligence or those deemed justifiable by prosecutors are not counted. In 2008, there were at least five deaths that fit those circumstances and were not included in the murder tally, according to an analysis of department data provided this year.

Nearly five decades later, one thing has not changed: guns are still the deadliest of weapons.

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