Even the streets are safer, the Newark Police Department says, noting that homicides, robberies and burglaries have declined by more than 50 percent since 1995.

Cities with populations over a million reported that murders and robberies each declined 11 percent.

One result of such changes is that cash-in-transit robberies, which peaked at 374 for the year that ended April 2003, declined to 220 during the year that ended April 2005.

As for why robberies declined, he said: "People are alert, more frightened.

Since Robert M. Morgenthau became Manhattan district attorney in 1975, homicides, burglaries and robberies in the borough have declined by more than 80 percent.

While robberies declined by 2.4 percent to 78,890, the New York City Police Department reported last week, murders increased by 5.8 percent to 1,691.

Among violent crimes, robberies declined 5.7 percent, to 86,001 in 1993 from 91,239 in 1992.

During the first year of Project Exile (1998), homicides in Richmond declined 33%, for the lowest number since 1987, and armed robberies declined 30%.

Roadblocks are now all manned by soldiers in uniform, and robberies, which were commonplace, have declined.

Mr. Kelly said that the number of rapes was the lowest since 1971 and that robberies have declined to 91,239 since a peak year of 1981, when there were 107,495, a 15.1 percent decrease over the years.