Major cities across the United States have been seeing at least one bright spot during the coronavirus pandemic: less crime.
New York City police saw a 25% decrease in murders during the last two weeks of March and a 37% decrease in grand larcenies, according to statistics released Thursday. Prior to the city declaring a state of emergency earlier in the month, crime had increased by nearly 30% compared with the same period last year.
In Los Angeles, there has been an 11% drop in violent crime, including a 43% drop in murders.
The city of Chicago has seen a 36% drop in homicides in the last month and nearly 80% in the last week. Theft was also down 40% while burglaries were down 32%.
“We can’t specifically say that the crime rate is affected by coronavirus,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at a recent press conference. “But obviously what we know going back many, many years and looking at data is that when large congregations of people are outside in neighborhoods where gun violence is prevalent, that increases the risk.”
The drop in crime has been seen in other major cities across the nation, from Denver to Atlanta.
The coronavirus has hit major cities particularly hard, especially New York City. The city has nearly 60,000 cases or more than a fifth of the more than 250,000 confirmed cases nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.
