The NYPD’s latest citywide crime statistics seem to indicate that the city’s on track to report sizable murder and shooting decreases in 2022, and possibly a substantial crime decrease during December.
Year-to-date through Dec. 25, according to the latest CompStat report, the NYPD has tallied a 13.1% drop in murders, with 418 in 2022 compared to 481 homicides at the same point in 2021. Shootings are also down 17% year to date, with 1,280 shooting incidents this year compared to 1,543 in 2021.
Even so, the NYPD is still on pace to see an overall crime increase this year. Through Dec. 25, the department reported 124,397 total felonies (murders, rapes, robbery, felony assault, burglary and grand larceny), up 22.87% from the 101,245 major crimes recorded as of Christmas Day in 2021.
Crime was dramatically higher across the Five Boroughs for much of 2022, fueled largely by property crimes such as burglaries, robberies and grand larcenies, but things seemed to begin turning the corner during the summer. Major felonies were still higher between July and October, but each month, the rate of increase fell, from 30.5% in July, to 26% in August, to 15.2% in September, to 5.9% in October.
In November, the NYPD reported its first monthly crime decrease of 2022, albeit a slight one; major crimes during the month had dropped 1.2% from the number registered during November 2021.
And the latest CompStat report seems to indicate even better news from the NYPD might be on the horizon.
During the 28-day period between Nov. 28-Dec. 25 of this year, the department saw overall crime decrease by 12.75%, with 9,156 major felonies reported during the period, down from the 10,494 registered during the same time in 2021.
Between Nov. 28-Dec. 25, 2022, police tallied 26 murders, down 41% the year prior; 3,813 grand larcenies, a substantial 27.1% decline; and 1,151 robberies, an 8.9% reduction. Burglaries — another property crime that persisted throughout 2022 — also dropped 5.2% during the period (1,153 incidents total), and rapes (which the NYPD notes are constantly underreported) fell by 12% (103 cases).
Shootings also dropped by 30.6%, with 75 incidents reported during the period, and transit crimes also fell by 6.6%, according to the CompStat report.
Felony assaults were even during the 28-day period, with approximately 1,748 reported; year-to-date, the NYPD has seen a 12.6% jump in such crimes.
For Mayor Eric Adams, the falling crime numbers during the second half of 2022 are an indication that New York City is turning the corner thanks to crime-fighting policies that both he and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell have implemented throughout the NYPD.
“We’re still 20 something percent up in some of the majors, particularly grand larceny, which is a real problem, which the number of repeated offenders – the people who are arrested repeatedly for grand larceny – some of them are 30 to 40 times that arrested over and over again and allowed to come back down and do it again,” Adams said in a Dec. 27 interview with amNewYork Metro. “But remember what happened in February? We were 40% up in February. Now we’re trending way down at 20%. And you’re seeing the fruits of the seeds we planted, you’re seeing the harvest of what we have done.”
Among the crime-fighting policies initiated this year include the introduction of Neighborhood Safety Teams, groups of officers in each precinct targeting gun criminals. Mayor Adams said their efforts have helped take thousands of guns off the streets and combat the rash of gun violence citywide.
“We had an over proliferation of guns that some people have dismissed of the fact that we have a double digit decrease in homicide, double digit decrease in shootings,” said the mayor, who noted that the NYPD made “the highest number of gun arrests in over 27 years” and took more than 7,000 guns off the streets.
The NYPD is expected to release its full December 2022 crime report some time in early January.
With reporting by Ethan Stark-Miller
