Crime dropped all across the country. I would never give Rudy credit for that.
And crime in New York City began to drop during David Dinkins' last year in office. That is the proof. It was Dinkins' "Safe Streets, Safe City" program that was responsible.
What SCSS did was take cops out of precincts where there were working as typists, file clerks and answering phones and assign them to patrol units. Dinkins wanted them back on the streets. THAT is what dropped street crime. The addition of thousands of cops on the streets.
People think Rudy did something because the crime numbers were always fudged. He simply continued Dinkins' Safe City, Safe Streets program and loudly proclaimed he was a genius.
Rudy concentrated, as did Bloomberg, only on Manhattan below 96th Street. And the tourist areas. And of course, demanding parents let their kids skip school to attend Yankee victory parades. Of course, he stationed cops around Yankee Stadium. It's a huge draw. Her did the same with Shea.
But crime continued in the four outer boroughs. It just wasn't as vicious when people were pulling armed robberies three and four times a day to feed a crack habit.
The one thing I will give Rudy credit for is merging the city's police forces: Transit, and Housing with the NYPD. The rancor and resentment between the three forces was sometimes bad.
When I was a NYPD dispatcher, NYPD would tend to refuse calls in housing projects, always telling me "notify the Housing guards." I am just glad he's no longer Mayor, but will be prominent again if Trump makes it back to the White House.