“This city has never been safer, period.”

It’s the sort of pronouncement that makes slightly superstitious newsroom editors and probably a lot of cops, prosecutors, and savvy citizens a bit queasy with the thought of jinxing a run of good luck.

But, the person who made this declaration during a Dec. 27 press conference alongside Mayor Michelle Wu was none other than the Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, a seasoned cop who grew up in Roxbury, lives in Dorchester, and certainly understands the history and challenges our neighborhoods have faced.

By Cox’s assessment, Boston’s violent crime rate decline is about much more than luck. He has good reason to be proud of the men and women of his police force and his command staff.

It’s a tangible fact that the rate of violent crimes here in Boston is well below that of comparable cities across the US. There were 24 murders in ‘24, down from 38 the year before— a drop of one-third and the lowest number recorded since 1957, Cox says. There were also fewer shootings and gunshot victims year-to-year between ’24 and ’23. Taken together, that accounts for a 14 percent drop in gun related violence compared to last year and 37 percent against the five-year average. It’s the third consecutive year of a drop in shootings across Boston.

Even the most cynical among us can stand up and applaud the direction this is going and root hard for 2025 to see even further improvement. And from a political perspective, the mayor and her public safety team would be getting savaged by their usual critics if the opposite were true. So, while Mayor Wu specifically said her late December presser wasn’t a victory lap— she should get credit where credit is due.

But it’s also a fact that overall crime ticked up ever so slightly —by one percentage point— last year, driven by more aggravated assaults, commercial burglaries, and larcenies. All is not perfect, not by a long stretch.

This week, Councillor Ed Flynn— who has become Wu’s loyal opposition personified on the council— called for a hearing to review 2024 crime stats and dig deeper into the categories that did, in fact, tick-up last year. He also wants a review of the BPD’s crime lab and delays in testing that could, he warns, impact investigations into sexual assault cases.

Such a hearing should be embraced by the Wu administration, which can confidently point to significant success in making our neighborhoods safer on their watch. Boston can get better still by examining trends in categories that need further improvement and investment in personnel, equipment, and community partnerships that the mayor, Cox, and others credit with helping drive down the gun problem.

Many of us who’ve lived here long enough remember the “bad old days” of the late 1980s and early 1990s when young people were dying violently on our streets by the dozens and there was a palpable sense of disorder and menace at large. We’ve come a long way from 152 homicides in 1990, but we can and should do even better.

Let’s get that hearing scheduled and hear more about what’s going right from law enforcement and their partners. Boston has a good story to tell. Let’s talk about it more often.