Eric adams was elected mayor of New York City last year with a pledge to crack down on crime. But despite some new initiatives, violence continues to climb. On April 12th Mr Adams’s own security detail was beefed up after a gunman shot ten people on a subway in Brooklyn, the city’s most populous borough. (The suspect, who was on the run, was apprehended the next day in Manhattan and charged with committing a terrorist act.) The shooting struck fear into New Yorkers already rattled by other violent deaths, including those of a woman in January who was pushed onto the tracks at the well-policed Times Square subway station, and a 16-year-old killed by stray bullets as she walked home from school in early April.

Data from the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirm a grim rise in violence. Shootings were up by 16% in March compared with the same month last year. Robberies, burglaries and car thefts have all increased (the latter are up by nearly 60%). Reported assaults have increased by nearly 18%. Murders, however, are on the wane, which police say is because of a surge in arrests for other serious offences, thereby thwarting would-be murderers.

But despite the gruesome headlines, New York is still one of America’s safest big cities. Crime is much lower than it was at its peak in 1990, when more than 2,000 people were murdered in a single year. Violence began to fall over the following three decades, thanks in part to new policing techniques. By 2019 murders had dropped by 85% to 319, far lower per capita than in cities such as Chicago and Detroit, which have much smaller populations than New York.

The recent spike in violence, which began during the pandemic, is shaking public confidence. Mr Adams, a former police captain, is under pressure to reverse that trend. But the perception that crime is rampant in New York City is more fear than reality. ■

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