When I lived in Bay Ridge, there was only one homicide in all of 2003.
I'll never forget my first time witnessing arraignments taking place at 100 Centre Street (The Criminal Court Building). I was there for 12 hours watched several hundred people get arraigned. It was an amazing site. There arraignment part worked 24/7 except sometimes there was a second arraignment part to ease the overflow. Now I heard they no longer work 24/7 because they have no customers. I can't vouch for the absolute accuracy of the crime stats, but the lack of criminals to prosecute is certainly real and indicative of the underlying crime rate.