Despite a spate of fatal shootings that have made headlines, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city is seeing a drop in its murder rate.

“The city's crime statistics — we are on track to set a new record in low crime,” he said.

According to the most recent police data, the city is on pace to have fewer than 500 murders by year's end. Additionally, the total number of shooting victims is down compared to last year.

Mayor Bloomberg used the numbers to counter recent headlines about several deadly shootings.

“One month we had record high shootings, the next month we had record low shootings,” he said. “The bottom line is this is the safest, quietest summer we've ever had since we started keeping records.”

While the most recent stats show that the number of murders and shootings is dropping, overall serious crime is up over four percent compared to this time last year.