NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Preventing crime through the pandemic continues to be an issue for the NYPD, which within the final crime report of Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s administration noticed a slight drop in murders and a rise in gun arrests final month.
Nonetheless, there have been vital will increase in a number of different crimes, together with these dedicated on the subway, creating extra complications for Mayor-elect Eric Adams, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Wednesday.
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One of many the explanation why Adams, a former NYPD captain, was elected mayor was the idea that he would be capable to make the town safer.
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At his final briefing on the town’s crime charge, outgoing Police Commissioner Dermot Shea stated that recidivism — individuals repeatedly committing crimes — and the variety of younger individuals with weapons might be among the many two greatest issues on the primary day of the brand new administration.
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Each the mayor and the commissioner are calling for judges to do extra to maintain individuals off the streets.
“We do want a tradition of consequence. We obtained to get the court docket system again and working. We obtained to create a actuality the place everybody is aware of there are penalties for his or her actions,” de Blasio stated.
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The mayor blamed the courts, once more, for the truth that regardless of beneficial properties in metropolis security earlier than the pandemic hit, his administration has needed to cope with usually tough and intractable issues which have made New Yorkers afraid to stroll the streets and afraid to take the subways.
Sure, murders have been down barely final month — 24, in comparison with 29 in 2020 — and, sure, there have been extra gun arrests. However transit crimes have been up 106% final month — 235 versus 114 in 2020. Grand larceny was up 40% (4,433 versus 3,153), and hate crime was up 97% (494 so far this year, compared to 251 last year.)
“We all know what the blueprint is. We simply must now hone it and get again on to that path,” Shea stated.
Shea was candid in speaking concerning the issues he’s leaving the incoming mayor.
“What we’re seeing is recidivism, and that would be the problem, I feel, to construct on and make inroads in for the following administration, while you see a number of the shootings that we see,” Shea stated.
Shea stated that 30% of the individuals arrested for shootings have an open felony case, and that 10% of younger individuals beneath 18 are arrested for possession of firearms. That’s up from simply 1.8%.
“We all know we now have lots of work to do,” Shea stated. “We’ve got to deal with a number of the small fixes to a number of the legal guidelines which can be hurting us on the recidivism. We’re seeing upticks in all of the metrics by way of individuals arrested time and again, and it’s the identical story. It’s not widespread. It’s small numbers of individuals which can be, sadly, performing some hurt to New Yorkers.”
With a dramatic improve within the variety of weapons present in faculties, each the mayor and police commissioner have been requested if there needs to be a rise in steel detectors. Each ducked the query, saying it needed to be selected a case-by-case foundation. That is one other challenge that Mayor-elect Adams must deal with sooner reasonably than later.
