Opinion

Fruits of stop-and-frisk

There have been fewer murders in New York City to date this year than at any time in the 50 years since the NYPD began tracking major-crime data.

For this, thank your local police officer.

And, of course, the enlightened — albeit sometimes controversial — anti-crime policies of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

As of yesterday, there were 413 homicides in the city this year, according to police.

There were 511 at this time last year.

That marks a 19 percent plunge in a single year — a remarkable feat.

“I’m thankful for the fact that this year there will be the lowest number of murders that we’ve had since we started to record them in 50 years, even though the population is as high as it’s ever been,” said Kelly.

Sad to say for other cities, New York is unique.

As Kelly noted on these pages in October, “If we had Chicago’s murder rate, [New York’s homicide] total would be 1,224. If we had Philadelphia’s, 1,483; at Baltimore’s rate, 2,338 — and at Detroit’s, 3,635.”

So New York clearly is doing something right . . . but what?

It’s not just that hi-tech emergency rooms are saving more lives these days — there were also fewer shootings in New York in 2012 than there have been since cops started following that stat 20 years ago.

Kelly rightly attributes his success to aggressive law-enforcement tactics, including stop-and-frisk, the routine searching of people the police suspect are carrying illegal weapons or other contraband.

Chicago and Detroit don’t perform stop-and-frisks; Philadelphia used the tactic, but its hands have been cuffed by the courts this year — to predictable results.

More could be done to protect New Yorkers, of course, and an outright ban on assault rifles is under serious consideration in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings.

Still, of the 769 homicides statewide last year, just 5 were committed with rifles.

Nearly 400 involved handguns.

That helps explain why Kelly and Bloomberg are so adamant about clearing weapons, especially handguns, from city streets. And they understand that this requires enforcing the criminal statutes currently on the books.

The man who lured firefighters to his home outside Rochester last week and murdered two of them, apparently with a military-style rifle, had been convicted of killing his grandmother with a hammer years before. Why was he out of prison?

He was convicted of manslaughter for his first attack and released after 17 years behind bars. Had he been charged with murder, convicted and given a life sentence, he would not have been free to kill again.

The twin priorities sought by Bloomberg and executed by Kelly — locking up criminals and restricting the flow of weapons — have ushered in a stunningly low homicide rate compared to other big cities.

They are simple law-and-order policies, but the results are nearly miraculous.

That’s something to be thankful for.