Subway crime plunged 13 percent in 2007 – even as murders on the rails took a slight jump, according to NYPD statistics obtained yesterday by The Post.
The number of killings rose from two in 2006 to four last year, a return to normalcy for a system in which the number of homicides a year has hovered between two and four for a decade.
Overall, crime in the subways dropped 12.9 percent – led by a radical fall in rape, robbery and grand larceny, according to the NYPD data.
“This is a reflection of the good work of the men and women assigned to the New York City Police Department’s Transit Bureau,” said a department spokesman.
The only crime classification to rise was assault, going up 8.9 percent, from 192 in 2006 to 209 in 2007.
But the bad guys also ended up in custody more often last year than the year before.
According to the NYPD stats, total arrests rose 27 percent, from 26,716 to 33,919.
Police attributed the drop to several strategies, including targeting fare beaters, often believed to then commit more serious crimes.
After 9/11, increased anti-terrorism patrols, including heavily armed “Hercules” units, have also been credited with deterring crime in stations as well as aboard trains.
Summonses issued by transit cops for such infractions as fare beating rose 4.9 percent, from 140,984 in 2006 to 147,869 last year, officials said.