Fact Check: Did NYC record its safest January ever, with murders, shootings down by 60% and 20%?

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Zohran Mamdani was elected as the 112th Mayor of New York City in the 2025 mayoral election and officially took office on January 1, 2026.

In February, a rumor circulated online claiming that New York City recorded its safest January ever, with murders down 60% and shootings down 20%. But is there any truth to this? Let us find out below.

Claim: New York City recorded its safest January ever

Several social media posts claimed in late February that New York City recorded its safest January ever, with murders down 60% and shootings down 20%.

An X post read, "Under new Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York City just recorded its safest January ever, with the number of shootings and murders plummeting to new lows. The number of homicides plunged 60%, while shooting incidents were down 20% compared to January 2025, data shows."

Similarly, another X account posted, "New York City recorded its safest January ever, with murders down 60% and shootings down 20%."

Meanwhile, an X user also mentioned, "New York recorded its safest January ever, with murders down 60% and shootings down 20%. Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, is already making history."

Mamdani announced his candidacy for mayor in October 2024, running as a democratic socialist focused on affordability, housing, public transit, and working-class issues.

In June 2025, he won the Democratic primary in an upset victory, defeating a crowded field including former Governor Andrew Cuomo. In the general election, Mamdani won with about 50.78% of the vote, defeating Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, marking a historic progressive win.

Fact Check: True, official data backs the claim

The claims made in the online posts are true, as New York City did record its safest January ever in 2026, with murders down 60% and shootings down 20%.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch highlighted the stats in a February 2, 2026, announcement, and attributed the declines to data-driven strategies, though some critics speculated cold weather played a role. 

Though overall major crimes dipped slightly citywide, some categories, like transit crime, rose. The official statement read, "The city saw 40 shooting incidents and 47 shooting victims, compared to the previous all-time lows of 50 and 56, set in 2025 and 2019, respectively. Murders declined to their lowest level for January, shattering the previous record of 22 set in 2018 and 2022. Manhattan and Staten Island went the entire month without a single murder."

NYPD Commissioner Tisch said, "For the first month of the year, the women and men of the NYPD delivered the fewest shooting incidents, victims, and murders in recorded history. These results show that this department remains focused on building on the historic public safety gains made last year. Our strategy is simple: don’t just get tough on crime, get smart. And deploy the best police officers in the nation to get it done and make New York safer."