Murder, hate crimes up as overall crime fell: NYPD
BY EMILY DAVENPORT
Even amid a troubling rise in murders
and hate crimes, the NYPD
touted a decrease in overall
crime in 2019 during its year-in-review
report released Monday.
According to their fi ndings, in 2019,
overall crime was lower than in 2018,
dropping to a new benchmark of approximately
95,000 incidents with 872
fewer victims than in 2018. The NYPD
cites some of their success to their efforts
to effectively respond to an increasing
volume of calls for help.
Radio runs increased to 6.4 million
in 2019, compared with 4.8 million in
2015, an increase of roughly 1.5 million
radio runs citywide. Since 2015,
response times for both crimes in progress
and critical crimes have dropped
23 and 43 seconds, respectively.
“Every man and woman who wears
an NYPD uniform is dedicated to serving
New Yorkers in every neighborhood
and to working around the clock
to keep families and individuals safe
from the trauma of crime and violence.
We will not cede an inch in our mission
to vigorously fi ght and prevent crime
while, at the same time, continuing to
build trust with the residents of New
York who remain our greatest partners
in ensuring the highest levels of public
safety for all,” said Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea.
According to the statistics, burglaries
are down -8.7 percent, dropping
from 11,777 recorded crimes in 2018
to 10,751 in 2019, and grand larcenies
are down -1.2 percent overall, decreasing
from 43,761 in 2018 to 43,227 in
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with NYPD brass, released the overall
crime report for 2019 in Queens on Jan. 6.
2019. Crime taking place in transit also
experienced a -3.4 percent decrease
last year.
The NYPD’s reported rape cases
went down 2.5 percent in 2019, going
from 137 cases in 2018 to 103 in 2019.
However, the NYPD acknowledges
that rape cases are continuing to go unreported.
Despite the all-time low, hate crimes
are continuing to grow throughout the
fi ve boroughs, rising from 356 in 2018
to 428 in 2019. The statistics found
that 55 percent of the hate crimes were
anti-Semitic in motivation, rising from
186 reported crimes in 2018 to 234 in
2019.
The number of murder cases in 2019
rose from 295 in 2018 to 318 in 2019.
Felony assaults, robberies and grand
larceny autos all saw rises as well, increasing
1.4 percent, 3.1 percent and
0.3 percent, respectively.
With the highs and lows of crime last
year, the NYPD is committed to focusing
on gangs, crews and the drivers
of violence, in an effort to furthering
their Neighborhood Policing philosophy
and to engage with the city’s youth
to improve people’s lives, keep guns
off the streets and prevent crime from
occurring. The department is offi cially
launching a “Youth Forum,” where
NYPD and City agency partners will
PHOTO VIA TWITTER/@NYPDSHEA
work together to design the most effective
enforcement and prevention strategies
to address rising youth crime.
“While crime is at a record low in
New York City, there is more work to
do to ensure that every New Yorker
feels safe in their neighborhood. We
will continue to use precision policing
to target enforcement and deepen our
work with communities to fi ght crime,”
said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “With Commissioner
Shea at the helm, I have full
confi dence the NYPD will continue to
make our city even safer.”
Guv seeks to ban sex offenders from transit
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
Convicted creeps shouldn’t be
able to ride a bus or train in
New York City for at least three
years, according to Governor Andrew
Cuomo.
A day before his State of the State
address, Cuomo announced Tuesday
his plan to temporarily ban repeat and
high-risk sexual offenders from the
MTA’s transit systems. This includes
individuals found to have committed
repeat sex-related violations of the
MTA code of conduct and registered
Level 3 sex offenders.
The governor said the matter comes
down to public safety.
“MTA riders deserve to feel safe, and
we have an obligation to ensure they
will not be targeted by sex offenders,”
Cuomo said. “Enough is enough. If we
want our public transit system to improve,
we need balance between someone’s
right to access public transit and
the riders’ right to safety, which is why
PHOTO VIA PIXABAY
Governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking to ban sex offenders from the MTA
for a minimum of three years.
I am proposing a three-year ban from the MTA transit systems as a penalty
for individuals who repeatedly engage
in this abhorrent behavior.”
The governor’s plan also includes a
new bill that would enable judges to
impose temporary bans from transit
systems against any offender accused
of a transit-related sex crime before
their trial. Anyone who violates the
ban would be at risk of facing charges
of transit trespass, which is a grade A
misdemeanor.
The Riders Alliance, however,
doesn’t think Cuomo has the authority
to keep any New Yorker out of a public
space such as the transit system — regardless
of the offense.
“Public transit is public space. People
shouldn’t be banned from public
space,” according to a statement from
the Riders Alliance. “We oppose banning
New Yorkers from subways and
buses.”
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