Was last year really the least violent in Boston’s history?

Last year also featured the lowest number of shootings, both fatal and nonfatal, since the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a police intelligence gathering operation sometimes referred to as BRIC, started keeping track of such statistics in 2005, according to police.

What is undeniably true: Boston has enjoyed a low level of violence when compared with other major American cities in recent years. That trend continued in 2023.

Baltimore, for instance, recorded a “historic drop” of more than 20 percent of homicides last year, but still recorded more than 250 slayings. Milwaukee, too, saw killings dip more than 20 percent last year, after a historic high in 2022. But at least 160 people were killed in that city last year. Washington, D.C., experienced a 20-year-high in homicides in 2023 with 274.

“Boston has an important and impressive record on safety when we look at the last year,” said Christine Cole, a Boston-based public safety consultant.

While Boston’s homicide number is “remarkably low,” compared to similar-sized cities, Cole thought it was important that Wu, during her Tuesday night address, acknowledged that the city would “refuse to give up on ending violence everywhere in” Boston.

“If you live in the neighborhoods where those (shootings) are happening, it’s still too many and it’s still too violent,” said Cole.

Despite the dip in shootings, not everyone is applauding Wu’s approach to public safety. The Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, founder and director of the Ella J. Baker House, thought that the best that can be said of Wu’s administration on combatting street violence is that “they’ve been lucky.” On Wednesday, he was adamant that the numbers do not tell the whole story.

“Go to the poorest Black neighborhoods and ask them if crime is down,” said Rivers, a resident of Fields Corner in Dorchester and a persistent critic of Wu’s stances on public safety.

During her speech, Wu also addressed the intersecting crises of opioid addiction, mental health problems, and homelessness that is Mass. and Cass, the name of the area around the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. It’s been an open-air drug market for years, a public health and safety conundrum that bedeviled the two mayors prior to Wu.

Wu’s speech emphasized that the homeless encampments, which for so long represented the failed policies that fostered Mass. and Cass, are now gone, and that the city had housed and helped hundreds who formerly called the streets of the area home.

Bob Minnocci, a South End resident who lives a few blocks from Mass. and Cass, praised Wu’s work on Wednesday. He admitted that he did not vote for Wu because he didn’t think she would be “strong enough on the Mass. and Cass problem,” but acknowledged he has been surprised, saying she is to be “commended for her leadership” on the issue.

“She has provided a very thoughtful approach,” said Minnocci, who is a member of the Worcester Square Area Neighborhood Association. “This crisis will take years to resolve but it is great to have a chief executive who is willing to approach it.”

Eldin Lynn Villafañe, a public relations specialist, thought Wu approached combating crime in the city in a “holistic way.”

“That is no small feat,” he said Wednesday. “They’re doing their best to address the systemic root causes of violence and issues like policing.”

Indeed, Wu, in her biggest annual address, made sure to highlight a slew of statistics that reflected her administration’s approach to public safety: 800 guns taken off the street, 300 responses to building fires, more than 300 residents who received mental health treatment and care provided through EMS’s new alternative response unit, and the graduation of the most diverse Boston police recruitment class ever, with more than 60 percent of the 133 graduates being officers of color. She also mentioned the first EMS cadet class in two decades and the first ever Boston fire cadet class.

Ensuring that public safety departments reflect the city’s diversity was important for Joyce Ferriabough Bolling, a Boston political consultant who called the speech uplifting.

“For what she has done, I have to give her credit,” said Ferriabough Bolling.

Ferriabough Bolling was among those to applaud Wu’s work in achieving discipline reforms for Boston police through the collective bargaining process, which also featured in Tuesday’s speech.

Specifically, her administration ended arbitration as a way to overturn discipline for an array of serious offenses. While offenses such as domestic violence and excessive force were not on the list of violations, Wu has by-and-large received praise for coming to a deal that included any arbitration carveout.

What was omitted from the speech also spoke volumes for some observers. For instance, there was no mention of Wu’s support of grant funding for the BRIC, which maintains the city’s gang database and has faced civil liberties and racial profiling criticisms in recent years. The mayor’s support for that funding rankled some progressives last year.

Brenda Bond, a Suffolk University professor whose expertise includes policing, said it made sense that Wu would concentrate on Mass. and Cass, the overall low violent crime in the city, and the police union contract.

“The progress on those are definitely worth recognizing,” she said.

But she also noted what was not in the speech. There was no mention of the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, a city police watchdog that has faced criticism over its effectiveness during the two-plus years since its creation. Recent public safety concerns regarding violence downtown and on Boston Common were also unmentioned, Bond said.

“Safety continues to be a big concern,” she said.

Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.