NYPD: Overall crime is down but murders are up

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - The NYPD said that New York had 48,000 fewer arrests citywide in 2015 than the previous year. Despite that the mayor and police commissioner say this was the safest year in New York in modern history.

The NYPD crime numbers are in. Overall crime in the city dropped 1.7 percent this year. And there has been a 5.8 percent decline since January 2014, when Commissioner Bill Bratton took charge. Shootings are down overall by 3 percent but some parts of the city did see a spike in gun violence.

Most recently former Commissioner Ray Kelly blamed the de Blasio administration for fudging crime numbers to make them look better. To that Bratton said: "We have made no changes in how we report information to UCR or in case of shootings."

After ending stop and frisk, the mayor says gun arrests are up. 

But the numbers aren't all good. Murders are up 4.5 percent, rapes increased by 6 percent, and transit crime is up 11 percent.

To reduce those numbers, the NYPD is turning to technology. 20,000 officers have been given smart phones and 1,000 patrol cars are equipped with tablets, all with custom built apps to help fight crime.

The public will have access to same technology the NYPD uses internally. In February, the CompStat book will be digitized and available for anyone to see and track crime activity throughout the city.