25 Years in 25 Days (1990): NYC's Murder Rate Peaks

This fall, the Brian Lehrer Show is marking 25 years of Brian at WNYC with a year-by-year look at stories that mattered from 1989 to 2014. Find the full schedule and lots more here.

A murder victim on Columbus Avenue (Ninth Avenue) in Manhattan, New York City, 1990.

(Barbara Alper/Getty)

In 1990, NYC's murder rate peaked at 2,605 killings. That fall, the New York Post famously ran a headline pleading with new Mayor Dinkins: "Dave, Do Something!" Ray Kelly, former NYPD Commissioner, who was First Deputy Commissioner in 1990, reflects on the height of the violence and one of NYC's greatest successes -- the dramatic drop in crime from the late 1980's through today.

Tomorrow, #BL25 on 1990, the year NYC's murder rate peaked, and the dramatic drop since. With former NYPD Ray Kelly. pic.twitter.com/QJ8SA2rsXK

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) September 29, 2014

The famous NY Post cover from the fall of 1990 pleading with new mayor David Dinkins to control NYC's soaring crime rate.

(NYPost)