Gun violence citywide continues to decrease

Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD officials are hopeful that a pattern emerging over the last few months is an indication that violent crime is ebbing after a sustained increase in shootings and homicides that began about the time the pandemic began to shroud the city three years ago. 

Through March 5, police recorded 59 killings, 14 fewer than through the same time period last year. Shootings citywide were down nearly 21 percent, to 148, while the number of gun violence victims decreased 14 percent. 

But while five of the seven major crime categories decreased year over year through Sunday, a 10.5 percent increase in felony assaults and a 5 percent hike in car thefts meant that the number of overall major crimes was nearly the same as last year. 

But NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri was nonetheless bullish about the trends, particularly regarding gun violence. He noted that three of the commands with typically high numbers of shootings had none in February: the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx, the 47th Precinct in the North Bronx and the 73rd Precinct in northeast Brooklyn. “Those are commands that historically have been in the top five for shooting violence in New York City,” he said during a March 3 briefing on public safety led by Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III. 

He noted that the northern Crown Heights neighborhood served by the 77th Precinct, along with those served by the 79th and the 81st precincts in Bedford-Stuyvesant had just three shootings altogether through February. 

Transit offenses decline

LiPetri said the decrease in shootings was a result of the NYPD’s determination to pour resources into neighborhoods that have high incidences of gun violence. 

Transit crime is also notably down, with police recording 336 incidents through March 5, a 21.5 percent year over year decrease. LiPetri, discussing the increased police presence underground since October, said that while enforcement in the subway was “laser-focused” and “multi-pronged,” it was also dependent on reporting from straphangers, as it was above ground, particularly in the city’s more notorious neighborhoods. He encouraged residents to speak with patrolling officers. “Our officers absolutely should be, and will and do engage with the community,” LiPetri said. 

“While it is early in the year, the crime statistics released today are encouraging as we saw significant reductions in major crimes across our streets, subways, and public housing developments in the month of February,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said in a statement accompanying the release of February’s crime statistics. 

Mayor Eric Adams, speaking on CBS News New York March 6, said called the crime stat figures encouraging. 

“I was clear that public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity in the city and we're going to continue to move in that direction,” he said. But Adams also indicated that more needed to be done to ensure that residents not only were safe, but also felt safe, a distinction he has been making for months. 

LiPetri, at the public safety briefing, noted that arrests tied to major crime incidents were at a 24-year high. But the mayor, also like he has said since just about the beginning of his tenure last year and echoing arguments hammered on by both his predecessor and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s last police commissioner, Dermot Shea, cited what he called “a recidivist problem.”

Although the police are adept at apprehending criminals, the vast majority of them repeat offenders, the justice system is either unwilling or unable to hold them behind bars, Adams said, compounding what he and police officials have characterized as a conveyor belt of crime. 

“It's a catch, release and repeat system,” the mayor said. “Too many cases are being dismissed in the thousands that we need to focus on, felony cases. And if we don't stop the extreme recidivism, it's going to make our job difficult, but we're going to continue to forge ahead.”

While he referenced his administration’s calls for “reform,” he added that “it’s more than just bail.”

He suggested that changes in discovery laws effected in 2020, as well a shortage of prosecuting attorneys, had led to a “bottlenecking” of the justice system that he hoped would be addressed by state lawmakers. 

“We cannot be heavy-handed in law enforcement, but we cannot be too lax on those who are creating the violence that we're seeing in our streets,” Adams said. “And that balance is possible and I'm hoping to accomplish that with the leaders in Albany this year.”

richardk@thechiefleader.com