IT WAS once the murder capital of the world, a city that lived in fear and fury.

But after driving out the drug dealers and prostitutes who once patrolled Times Square, New York City now has the lowest homicide rate among the five largest U.S. cities, continuing a trend that sees the Big Apple as one of the safest places in the country. No longer a hub of illicit activities, where the cops were as corrupt as the crack dealers, New York’s homicide rate has literally plummeted in recent years. A calculation by amNewYorkreveals the city’s current homicide rate stands at 2.2 deaths for every 100,000 residents. That’s in stark comparison to its peak in 1990 at 30.66 per 100,000. 186 homicides have been recorded this year and city officials guesstimate that could rise to up to 350. In 1990, 2,245 killings were recorded. “New York has broken new ground on what is possible with violence in a very large city,” said Franklin Zimring, a criminologist from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Mr Zimring noted a growing Asian population, “which traditionally has a low homicide level” as one of the key factors for the decline in crime. In comparison, America’s other big cities, though smaller in population numbers, are recording higher homicide rates. Chicago has experienced an 18 per cent increase in a year with a homicide rate of 8.52 per 100,00. While seeing a drop in homicide rates, Los Angeles, the nation’s second biggest city in terms of population, still sits higher than the Big Apple at 3.52 per 100,000. “We are the safest big city in America. We will continue to be. We will, in fact, go farther, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told reporter. Mayor Blasio joined Professor Eugene O’Donnell of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in believing the reducing crime rate was a reflection of the NYPD’s enforcement efforts. “The NYPD has an extraordinary ability to make strategic adjustments, to apply resources where they’re needed at most, and to change a situation on a dime — we’ve seen it time and again,” Mayor Blasio said “Remember, 2013 was a great year for crime fighting. 2014 was an even better year. They said it couldn’t be done — it was done. “The lowest number of murders in almost 50 years — a half century — tremendous progress on so many fronts.” Meanwhile, overall crime had dropped by more than 6 per cent in New York in comparison to 2014. Earlier this year, New York was the only city in the United States to make the Safe Cities Index 2015. — youngma@news.com.au