Shootings and homicides in the Big Apple continued to drop last month — but police officials blamed rampant recidivism for halting further attempts to cut crime.

Overall, crime remained flat in March compared to the same time in 2022 with 10,008 major crimes reported in March 2023, just nine more than last year, the NYPD reported Thursday.

But shootings dropped precipitously, tumbling by more than 26% to a total of 85 incidents from 115 last March, the NYPD reported.

Murders also fell, dropping by about 11% to 31 for the month, the NYPD said. Rapes and robberies remained steady, while burglaries fell by 12% to 1,185 compared to March 2022.

“These are significant tangible steps toward our very clear objective,” Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said at a Thursday press conference at One Police Plaza.

Still, the numbers hardly compare to the pre-pandemic days. The city police reported just 6,709 major crimes in March 2019, which was the lowest number of any March in the CompStat era and pushed the city to an all-time low for any quarter in modern times.

There were just 16 murders citywide that month, along with 56 shootings and 713 burglaries, according to city statistics.

This year’s March results also represent a slowdown from prior months – overall crime fell 11% in January and nearly 6% in February.

Sewell said repeat offenders are tripping up the NYPD’s efforts to further cut crime.

“Recidivism is the undertow pulling against everything we are doing to keep our city safe,” Sewell said Thursday. “It is counterproductive to public safety and, frankly, is a perpetual carousel of police resources.”

Sewell pointed to the 327 people that were arrested more than 6,000 times for retail theft as proof.

And Chief Michael Lipetri, the department’s head of crime control strategies, pointed to one man – Nathaniel Linden – who had been indicted for six church burglaries in November.

Linden was cut loose ahead of his trial after spending seven weeks in jail, Lipetri said. Nine hours later, he allegedly burglarized a dry cleaner business.

The eight-time convicted felon was cut loose again. Then he allegedly burglarized several more churches. He remains on the lam, the chief said.

“That’s recidivism,” Lipetri said. “That’s what the commissioner is talking about. This isn’t a person who had a bad day. This is a person who had a bad 40 years.”

The NYPD also plans to add resources to 25 precincts where it believes summer violence could be a problem. That’s down from 40 last year, according to Chief Jeff Maddrey.

“We believe that going down to 25 will allow us to focus even more resources in some of the busiest areas of the city,” Maddrey said.