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Crime In NYC Continues To Decline, Officials Say

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Crime in New York City has continued to decline through the first few weeks of 2017, officials announced Monday.

In their monthly crime briefing, Police Commissioner James O'Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio said several crime categories posted historic lows for the month of January, including murder and shooting incidents.

"It's been a good start to 2017," O'Neill said. "Citywide, we're down again in many of the major crime categories."

De Blasio said the hard work of the NYPD "is paying off."

"January of 2017 had the lowest number of homicides and the lowest number of shootings in the modern era of New York City," the mayor said.

According to the latest NYPD statistics, there were 20 murders last month, compared to 22 in January of 2016. There was also a 7.5 percent reduction in the number of robberies and a slight drop in the number of crimes overall.

But the numbers weren't all positive. The NYPD also says there were nine more rapes in January than there were in 2016, an increase of 8.9 percent.

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