Paterson is the latest New Jersey City touting a drop in violent crime in 2023.

Preliminary year end crime reporting shows murders, shootings, sexual violence and aggravated assault are all down compared to 2022.

Shootings are at their lowest level in a decade, dropping by 25%.

And the number of murders in 2023 stands at 17, compared with 28 for the previous year.

The announcement in reduced crime comes some ten months after the state attorney general took control of the city's police department in March.

The state AG said at the time there was a crisis of confidence in law enforcement.

He appointed Isa Abbassi to lead the Paterson PD in May.

Abbassi says these latest numbers are a sign that the takeover is working.

You know, the job's not done here.

We're not declaring mission complete.

There's so much more to do.

And, you know, crime statistics are great.

And I think, you know, our crime statistics are exceptional.

But there is so much more to do around constitutional policing, community engagement, maintaining a level of safety here in the city that that thankfully we've been able to achieve.

But the state takeover has caused friction between the state and the city.

Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh has been critical of state intervention and today said the city was already reducing crime before the state took control of the police department.

This is a win for the city of Paterson, but it started way back, way back when we got reelected by a resounding margin when we said that we are going to pursue non policing strategies to reduce crime in Paterson, whether it's through reentry, whether it's through financial empowerment, whether through a guaranteed income, or assisting people who are struggling with opioid use disorder.

So we were going to have this same conversation irrespective of a state takeover, because there were items that we were implementing that just took time to bake.