In the first month of 2026, just after the “safest year in Brooklyn history,” major crime was up slightly across the borough, driven largely by theft.
According to the latest NYPD data, major felonies — murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto — were up 1.5% in the 28-day period from Jan. 5 to Feb. 1, compared to the same period in 2025.
An increase in thievery was largely responsible for the rise. Robbery, which and grand larceny were up 8% and 1.5%, respectively, while grand larceny auto rose by a whopping 15%. Burglary, meanwhile, dropped significantly, by 24%.
Felony assault, which has frequently spiked in Brookly, leaped 10%, from 466 incidents in January 2025 to 516 in January 2026.
At least two of those assaults were reported in the subway. On Jan. 4, a 17-year-old boy was beaten and stabbed by a group of teens inside the Livonia Avenue station in Brownsville. Several days later, police said a 41-year-old man was stabbed onboard an A train at the Euclid Avenue station.
But other violent crimes dropped significantly, following citywide trends. Just two murders were reported in the borough, down 77% from nine murders during the same period last year. Rape declined by 8%.
Shooting incidents, which are not included as a major felony, were down by 50%, the data show.
Brooklyn also saw a brutal police shooting on Jan. 8, when officers shot and killed a patient at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital who had apparently taken another patient and a hospital employee hostage and threatened officers with a sharp object.
Murders and shootings also declined citywide in January, which NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said was “the safest January ever for gun violence.” January 2026 also broke the city’s record for the lowest number of murders in any January in recorded NYC history.
The commissioner said the decline was attributable to the NYPD’s “Winter Violence Reduction Plan,” which sent nearly 2,000 officers on nightly patrols in violence-prone areas across the city. In those areas, major crime is down 36.3%, per the NYPD.
“These results show that this department remains focused on building on the historic public safety gains made last year,” Tisch said in a statement. “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.”
While the department’s tactics seemed effective in lowering most violent incidents, hate crimes rose.
In Brooklyn, hate crimes were up 20% compared to the same period in 2025, with 12 total incidents reported. And while the number of reported hate crimes was down slightly across the city, Tisch said the number of incidents investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force was up 152%, with a massive jump in antisemitic incidents.
Two brutal antisemitic incidents were reported in Brooklyn last month. On two days in a row on Jan. 19 and 20, a Borough Park playground was vandalized with dozens of spray-painted swastikas and the name of Adolf Hitler. The incidents prompted a visit from new City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who said the Council will introduce a package of bills aimed at decreasing antisemitism on Feb. 12.
Just days later, on Jan. 28, a man repeatedly rammed his car into Chabad Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway. The suspect, 36-year-old Dan Sohail, was arrested on the scene and charged with multiple hate crimes.
