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GOOD, BAD AND UGLY IN CITY CRIME STATS

Murders and robberies are up in the city, but crime overall is down for the 18th consecutive year, NYPD statistics released yesterday show.

With 501 killings reported by last Sunday, the city’s homicide rate rose 5 percent compared to last year’s 476.

Robberies – including a rash of violent muggings in Central Park and a monthlong crime wave in Greenwich Village first revealed by The Post – were also up, by 2 percent, according to the report.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the spike in robberies, including a 9 percent surge in shoplifting, is “likely” a product of the dismal economy.

Mayor Bloomberg, meanwhile, pointed out that the murder rate was still the second lowest in nearly five decades, and was a huge 21 percent lower than when he took office in 2002.

Robberies, too, have dropped by 21 percent since Bloomberg’s first term, the report showed.

“Before 2002, the city had never recorded fewer than 600 murders a year, but now we will do it seven years running,” Bloomberg said.

“The continuing reduction of crime is a testament to the quality of our police force – the finest in the world – and to our determination to find innovative ways of turning up the heat on criminals.”

The statistics show that the 113,348 major crimes committed this year were 4 percent less than in 2007.

The success comes as the NYPD – like all city agencies – faces huge budget cuts.

Since 2001, the department has had to shrink from 40,800 officers, and is expected to be down to 36,838 by July next year.

A new round of budget cuts ordered this month will trim the department’s $4 billion allotment by $286 million through June 2010, slashing the number of new recruits by 500 and eliminating nearly 300 civilian positions.

The mayor said this year’s statistics showed the department was becoming a more successful crime-fighting force, despite the cuts.

“We’re doing more with less,” he said.

“Nobody makes any mistakes about knowing that we’re going to have fewer resources. It’s just more of a challenge for us, and I’m convinced we can do it. The job is to get the job done with the resources that we have.”

Advances in crime-fighting technology, including a rapid-response, high-tech database that feeds information on suspects, were credited with the success yesterday.

Bloomberg also praised Operation Impact, a program that has been flooding high-crime areas with rookie cops since 2003.

Those officers will next be deployed in precincts that bucked the trend this year and reported increased crime, including Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the Rockaways in Queens.

murray.weiss@nypost.com