But worryingly for businesses, the robbery of business properties bucked the trend and increased.
The Met’s annual crime statistics, which monitored offences and detections in London from April 06 to March 07, show that there were 62,000 fewer victims of crime in London last year.
Despite the recent publicity surrounding violent crime in London, the statistics indicate that there were actually 15,400 fewer violent crimes last year.
The figures also indicate that the robbery of business property increased by 17 percent, but the Met stressed that this actually represented a relatively low increase in the number of offences – 481 up on last year giving a total of 3,311 across London.
The Met also added that it was taking commercial crime seriously, and had recently set up Operation Vanguard which is targeting cash-in-transit robberies as well as robberies at commercial premises.
Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said that he believed the figures showed that change within the Metropolitan Police and greater funding is starting to have an affect.
“An important positive result for us this year is that gun and knife-enabled crime are down and murder numbers are stable,” Sir Ian said.
“However, each of the worrying number of recent attacks involving young people is a tragedy and we are determined to do all we can to tackle these crimes and to work with others to find lasting solutions.”