N.Y. police fired fewest bullets in 2009

NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- New York City Police Department records show police fired fewer bullets in 2009 than in any year since 1971, when the department began keeping such records.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he credited firearms training for the improvement, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

City police officers were involved in 105 shootings in 2009, tying the low record set a year earlier.

Police fired 296 bullets in 2009, down about 19 percent from 2008's 364 bullets.

In 2009, officers shot and killed 12 people and wounded 20 others, down from 13 killings and 18 injuries.

In 1971, police fired 2,113 bullets and killed 93 people, the internal department records showed.

Police shot at suspects in 47 incidents last year, most of which were in the Bronx and northern Brooklyn.

Only nine of the 49 suspects in those incidents, all of whom were Hispanic or African-American, shot at police, the newspaper reported critics said.

The report said the statistics were consistent with crime demographics. In 2009, those minorities made up 98 percent of shooting suspects identified by race.