NYPD: Most crime down in the city

At the beginning of our administration, shootings in New York City were at a 15-year high.”

Edward Caban, NYPD Commissioner

There were sizable reductions in such crimes as grand larceny auto, burglary and murder across the city last year, according to the New York City Police Department’s end-of-year citywide crime statistics.

One of those categories to see a decrease this year was shooting incidents, which decreased by double-digit percentages for both December and 2023. There were 416 fewer victims over the course of the year, making it the fourth-lowest number of shooting victims in the city in more than three decades according to the stats press release.

While the city saw a 11.9 percent decline in murders going from 438 in 2022 to 386 in 2023, the 50th Precinct saw a 66.7 percent increase with five homicides in 2023 and three in 2022. Those homicides included fatal stabbings and shootings.

Rapes went down 10.5 percent citywide and down 65.2 percent in the 50th Precinct, going from 23 in 2022 to 8 in 2023. Though it was emphasized that rapes continues to be underreported. For felony assault citywide there was a 6.3 increase and in the 5-0 a 9.7 percent decrease going from 217 to 196.

“At the beginning of our administration, shootings in New York City were at a 15-year high and murders were at a 10-year high, but we vowed to combat the pervasive sense of lawlessness,” Police commissioner Edward Caban said. “It is clear today that the NYPD’s laser-like focus on those who carry illegal guns continues to drive significant reductions in violent crime all across our city. There is always more work to do in every neighborhood, and we will remain relentless in our mission.”

Caban was named 46th police commissioner by Mayor Eric Adams last July. He replaced Keechant Sewell who resigned after an 18-month run. He said moving forward they will redouble their collaborative efforts with local, state and federal partners to ensure everyone in New York City feels safe.

Hate crimes have seen a rise citywide at 1.8 percent going from 608 to 619. However, the 5-0 saw a decrease at 62.5 percent going from eight in 2022 to three in 2023.

The number of bias incidents investigated by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force citywide dropped by 32 incidents (618 to 650) at 5 percent, but saw a December-to-December increase of 26 percent additional cases.

For the month of December hate crime motivations citywide saw a 100 percent increase for Asian (2 to 4), a 121 percent increase for Jewish (14 to 31), a 300 percent increase for Muslim (1 to 4), 83 percent for sexual orientation (6 to 11). Some of the motivations that went down for the month, according to the stats were for Black, ethnic, gender, Hispanic and religion.

Robberies went down 3.1 percent citywide and down 12.8 percent in the 5-0, from 187 to 163. Burglaries went down 13.1 percent citywide, but saw a 11.9 percent increase in the 5-0 going from 126 to 141.

Some of the crimes the city has long had trouble putting a stop to are grand larceny and grand larceny auto. There was a 2.5 percent decrease in grand larceny citywide and a 2.1 decrease in the 5-0 with those crimes going down from 711 in 2022 to 696 last year.

Earlier last year Mayor Adams partially attributed those crimes to a TikTok social media challenge that involved young teens stealing Hyundais and Kia vehicles.

One of the ways the NYPD combated those crimes was by introducing dedicated grand larceny auto radio motor patrol cars in each precinct. With license readers, those vehicles scanned known hotspots and recovery

For anyone who has witnessed countless cars without rims and tires it may not be a surprise that the 5-0 has seen a 23.3 increase in grand larceny auto, going from 287 in 2022 to 354. Citywide, there was also an increase of 15 percent going from 13,741 to 15,802.

NYPD reported officers arrested nearly 4,400 people for illegal possession of a gun in 2023 and took about 6,500 illegal firearms off the streets. This was linked to the decrease in other violent crime categories such as murder and felony assault.

Overall crime in city housing complexes rose by 3.1 percent (5,965 to 6,149) in 2023, and for the city’s transit system decreased by 2.6 percent (2,345 to 2,285) for the full year.