NYPD Stats Show Public Safely Slowly Improving, Despite Lack of Changes in Bail Reform

By Yehudit Garmaise

“Crime in NYC is trending downwards,” Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday, but the NYPD’s statistics that compare December 2022 to December 2021 reveal a mixed bag of results.

The biggest drop was thankfully seen in hate crimes, which plummeted 58.3% last month, when compared to December of 2021. 

While 36 hate crimes were reported to the NYPD in December 2021, only 15 people were targeted with hate crimes last month. 

Last month also saw a 23.4% decrease in shooting victims in NYC.

In addition, compared to 42 murders in December 2021 in NYC, the number of murders reported in the city last month was 34.

While in December 2021, 124 New Yorkers were shot, last month, the number of shooting victims decreased to 95.

Burglaries in NYC also slightly decreased by 10% in December 2022, compared to the previous December.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, transit crime did increase a whopping 133.3% when 188 people reported crimes on public transit last month: compared to the 173 victims of transit crime in December 2021.

Remember to lock your cars and use club locks because the crime that showed the biggest increase in crime last month was grand larceny auto, which went up 34% last month compared to the previous year. 

In fact, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said that grand larcenies are currently NYC’s “largest driver of crime, and we are developing a plan to address that.”

“Am I safer today than I was last year?” CBS news asked NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell. 

“I would say, ‘Absolutely,’ although, that is not to say that we don’t have work to do. I understand that.”

Sewell said that the NYPD was able to “cut down major crimes: even without the structural changes in legislation for which we have been asking,” such as changes in bail reform.

G-d willing, with the potential help of changes in bail reform and the continued efforts of the NYPD, when it comes to driving down crime in NYC: Slow and steady wins the race.