Serious crime in the District of Columbia plunged to its lowest level in more than 25 years in 1998, propelled by a 16 percent reduction in violent crimes last year, according to official year-end crime statistics released Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department.

The 46,290 major crimes reported to the police last year was the lowest annual total since 1972, when approximately 37,500 offenses were reported. Overall, crime fell 11 percent between 1997 and 1998, and there were 21,000 fewer victims of serious crimes last year than there were in 1995, one of the peak years for crime in the District.

Chief Charles H. Ramsey expressed cautious optimism about the latest figures. "We still have a long way to go to reach my goal of making Washington, D.C., the safest major city in America, but we are clearly headed in the right direction," the Chief said.

"These latest figures confirm the effectiveness of our strategy of community policing--of assigning officers to regular police service areas where they can work more closely with the community to fight crime and solve neighborhood problems. We intend to make these crime-prevention partnerships even stronger and more effective in the year ahead, as we put more police resources in the community , provide formal training to residents on every PSA and get other city agencies involved in community policing," Ramsey added.

The decreases in crime last year were widespread. They occurred in every police district and in every major crime category.

• Violent crime was down 16 percent last year, with double-digit decreases in all four violent crime categories: homicide (-14%), rape (-13%), robbery (-20%) and aggravated assault (-13%). Last year's homicide total was the lowest since 1987.

• All four property crimes also declined last year. Burglary and larceny/theft fell by 9 percent; motor vehicle theft (-14%) and arson (-21%) declined even more sharply.

• Reported crime was down in all seven police districts, with the largest decreases occurring among violent crimes. Violent crime reductions ranged from 9 percent in the Fourth and Sixth districts to 32 percent in the Second District and more than 20 percent in the Fifth and Seventh districts .

• Property crimes declined in six of the seven districts, with double-digit decreases recorded in the Second (-17%), Fourth (-16%) and Fifth (-14%) districts. There was a 3 percent increase in property crimes in the Sixth District, driven by an 11 percent jump in larceny/thefts.

1998 marked the third consecutive year in which crime fell in the District of Columbia. Last year's decrease of 11 percent followed a 19 percent reduction in 1997 and a 4 percent decline in 1996. Between 1995 and 1998, the number of serious crimes reported in the District fell by more than 31 percent, with 21,233 fewer victims.

There were 100 fewer homicides in 1998 than in 1995, a reduction of 28 percent. Robberies dropped by more than 47 percent, and reported rapes, burglaries and motor vehicle thefts declined by more than one-third each during this period.

The statistics released Monday represent the official, year-end totals reported to the FBI for inclusion in the annual Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program . Taken together, these eight crime categories--homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny/theft, motor vehicle theft and arson--make up the Crime Index, an annual measure of crime in the United States.

In addition to the 46,290 Index crimes reported to the Metropolitan Police Department in 1998, 21,939 "non-Index" crimes were also reported. These include offenses such as simple assaults, vandalism, disorderly conduct, prostitution, and various drug and weapons crimes. Non-Index crimes in the District declined nearly 4 percent last year from the 22,799 offenses reported in 1997.

Chief Ramsey said detailed information about these and other crime trends will be included in the Police Department's 1998 annual report, to be published in early May in both printed copies and on the Department's Web site -- www.mpdc.org. This will be the first annual report the Department has published in a decade.