Serious crime dipped 3% in September, the ninth straight month with a decrease, the NYPD said yesterday.
Interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon highlighted the department’s continued focus on guns — with more than 5,000 recovered by police thus far this year.
And Mayor Eric Adams noted that with crime in the subway system still falling — down 5% so far for the year — the Big Apple “continues to be the safest big city in America.”
Through the first nine months, the NYPD said, murders have dropped 11%, to 277 from 312 last year at this time, and there has been an 8% drop in shooting incidents down to 256 from 277.
Burglaries are also down, 8%, as are grand larcenies, 4%, and automobile theft, 9%. But rapes are up 14%, robberies are up 1% and felony assaults are up 5%.
Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri blamed the increase in felony assaults on the jump in domestic violence and stranger attacks, plus a spike in assaults against police officers. In the third quarter of the year, he noted, there were 36 more domestic violence assaults than in the second quarter, with corresponding increases in stranger attacks, 60, and assaults on officers, 75.
The NYPD also answered criticism from its federal monitor, Mylan Denerstein, who in a report issued Monday said an analysis of 2023 body-worn camera footage shows that cops filled out the required reports for only 59% of the stops analyzed. That’s less than the 69% found in a 2022 analysis.
“The NYPD appears to be headed in the wrong direction and must take immediate steps, including discipline when appropriate, to correct this failure to properly document [stops],” the report said.
Chief of Patrol John Chell acknowledged that the issue is critical to building trust in communities and helping to drive crime down further.
He noted that ComplianceStat, in which police officials analyze stops caught on police body-worn cameras, is a way to bring officers in line with their reporting obligations.
“We’re doing a good job in this — but we still have work to be done,” he said. “It’s being addressed. It’s building the trust…and we’re being as transparent as we can to fix a problem that was kind of not dealt with for years until this.”