Good News . . . With a Shadow

It’s another month of good news on crime . . . with a shadow that suggests one growing worry for the future. In truth, the numbers are mostly excellent: Overall violent crime was down in the first six months of 2019 by 5.4 percent over 2018, including a 13.5 percent drop in homicides. The 135 murders through June 30 puts the city on track for yet another new record low.

The worrisome bit of NYPD data: shootings are up 7.1 percent, from 337 in the first six months of 2018 to 361 this year.

Brooklyn North is the hot spot, Chief of Department Terence Monahan noted Monday, as “20 percent of the entire city shootings so far this year” came in four Brooklyn precincts, the 73rd, 75th, 77th and 79th.

And the NYPD seems to think the reason is that Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez is going too easy on gun-possession cases: Of the 158 weapons-possession guilty pleas his office has obtained this year, 47 perps headed to a no-jail diversion program, Monahan noted.

Yet at least some of those offenders have already been rearrested with guns.

Diversion programs allow young offenders with no prior violent record to plead guilty to possessions charges in order to avoid jail time, and also seal the case record. They began long before Gonzalez took over, but the clear fear is that he’s being too merciful.

Which brings up a larger worry: Under Gonzalez and his late predecessor, Ken Thompson, the Brooklyn DA’s office is markedly less eager to indict than in years past. Manhattan DA Cy Vance has similarly softened his office’s policies. And even if Melinda Katz, rather than Tiffany Cabán, winds up as the new Queens DA, she’ll continue that same trend.

Meanwhile, the Legislature is rushing through new criminal-justice reforms without bothering to talk to cops or prosecutors.

If the pendulum keeps shifting so far, so fast, even the best police work won’t be able to stop crime from rising again.