Rhiannon Ingle
Zohran Mamdani has just broken a huge record within his first few months of being the Mayor of New York City.
The 34-year-old democratic socialist was sworn in as the Mayor of NYC at the start of this year (1 January) after winning the election back in November. His monumental win made him the city's first Muslim mayor, the first of South Asian descent, and the youngest leader in over a century.
And it's clear that Mamdani is continuing to make history after the Big Apple broke its own record for fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims and murders in history during the first two months of 2026, according to Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.
An official press release shared by the official NYPD website on Monday (2 March) outlines that major crime declined 8 percent citywide with decreases across every borough in February and 1,100 fewer reported crimes year-to-date.
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For January and February combined, the city had 83 shooting incidents and 97 shooting victims, beating the previous all-time lows of 92 and 105, set in 2025 and 2019, respectively. So far this year, the city has recorded 32 murders, beating the previous all-time low of 38 set in 2018.
Additionally, the release stated that public housing has seen the safest start to the year in recorded history, with the fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims, murders, and robberies.
Meanwhile, burglary dropped nearly 20 percent citywide in February to the lowest level in recorded history year-to-date.
And retail theft fell 24.7 percent in February, despite traditionally increasing during winter months.
"Once again, the NYPD is demonstrating how targeted, data-driven policing is reducing crime and keeping communities safe," said NYPD Commissioner Tisch said. "In the first two months of this year, we have seen the fewest shooting incidents, shooting victims, murders, and burglaries in recorded history for January and February combined.
"The men and women of the NYPD brought major crime down in every borough and there were 1,100 fewer reported crimes than last year. From our public housing – which had historic lows in crime – to our streets and subways, we will always stay focused on keeping New Yorkers safe, and I thank every member of the NYPD for their continued work in getting us here."
The NYPD continues to combat violent crime and shootings through its Winter Violence Reduction Plan, which deploys up to 1,800 uniformed officers to nightly foot posts across 64 zones in 33 precincts, public housing, and the subway system. Since its inception in January, major crime is down 23.1 percent and shootings are down 66.7 percent in the zones.
Instead of sharing their elation over the incredible news, critics rushed to social media to spout their theories as to why the crime rate had dropped so significantly, mainly claiming that the city has seen snowy weather recently.
One X user penned: " It's like 2 months of heavy snow and a blizzard every weekend, of course it's gonna be low. NO ONE IS OUTSIDE."
"The degenerates don’t like the cold. Wait til summer. They’ll be back," declared a second as a third echoed: "Wait for the Summer."
Others, however, aptly pointed out the issues with such claims.
"Oh my god, people are actually saying 'it was cold'," lamented a fourth X user.
A fifth commented: "Can't wait for people to say 'it's because it's cold'. These statistics compare the same time period, it was cold in every other year's January and February too."
"NYC has had way snowier winters that didn’t produce record low crime. So the weather helped, but it clearly wasn’t the only factor... Mamdani/Policing strategies are clearly in effect," outlined another.
And a final X user wrote: "Only people in the world that would be upset about a statistic that less people are getting shot."