The crime rate in New York City continues to drop precipitously, even with police recruitment crimped by the grinding recession.

The FBI this week announced that the Big Apple remains the safest big city in America. And yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly released NYPD statistics that show startling decreases in the most-feared crimes since the first of the year.

The mayor and the lawman credited an emphasis on getting guns off the street for the current 12 percent drop in crime overall and a 21 percent decrease in murders during the first five months of this year compared with the same period last year. Abductions and robbery are down by almost 17 percent each.

“Using innovative policing strategies and a focus on keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, we are continuing to do more with less, in spite of the economic downturn,” Bloomberg said.

The FBI report, which compared data from 2007 to 2008, said violent crime in the city had dropped at nearly double the nationwide average — 4 percent compared with 2.5 percent — although murders, abductions and robberies saw slight increases.

This year’s decrease in crime citywide comes after the city at first canceled but then reduced by 75 percent the most recent police academy class, in January. Next January’s class has been eliminated.

In a late 2008 interview with the Staten Island Advance, Kelly said he wasn’t worried that a drop in police personnel would mean an increase in crime. He said the department is down 5,000 cops since 2001 but the crime rate has dropped 30 percent since then.

The city has asked for federal economic stimulus funds to hire more police. A decision has not yet been made, but a Bloomberg administration official said last week that could mean an extra 200 to 400 officers.

(Source: SILive.com)