A notable exception stuck out from the preliminary data the FBI released this week showing a 2% rise in major crimes nationally in 2001, reversing a nine year trend downward: Each of the seven major felonies used for the Crime Index was down in New York City. Our continued success puts the lie to the argument that free will has nothing to do with crime and that demography and economics are the determinant. Mark the contrast with Boston, which is the only other large city to achieve consistent double digit declines in crime over the last few years. The new numbers show that Beantown experienced a 67% jump in its murder rate, which has doubled over the last two years. Boston is up from 2000 in every category save aggravated assault. While New York conquered crime by focusing on quality of life violations and using the Compstat system to monitor results, Boston used an aggressive, primarily community-based policing system, which focused on murders and gun crimes by gang members, at times to the exclusion of smaller crimes. It relied on coordination between the police, the feds, parole and probation officers, and community groups and local clergy.

It was the sort of alliance that takes time to forge, and a continuous effort to maintain. The complexity of coordination also limited the city’s flexibility in using a Compstat-like computer system to track and respond to new trends. When the murder rate dropped, the community groups took a victory lap, but the inter-group coordination fell apart. Boston’s crime rate is still down about 40% from 1990. But its policing strategy was long on intervention and short on follow-up. It never seriously challenged the culture of criminality, and when a demographically distinct group of new murderers emerged, Boston was caught unawares and unprepared. New York, in contrast, has had continued success in keeping crime down, though the need remains for vigilance. While crime rates have remained low in Greenwich Village, for example, quality of life is on the decline. Aggressive panhandling has increased dramatically, and the area has been hit by high profile robberies, rapes, and murders. The surge in quality of life offenses is potentially a prelude for a rise in more serious crimes. The example of Boston makes clear that crime statistics are not an end unto themselves. The ability not only to stop murders but to defeat the cultural climate for crime is what makes Gotham stand out in the latest statistics from the FBI.