Cool summer
NYPD hot-zones push brings 30% drop in shoots
SUMMER IN the city is now a lot safer.
Following a spike in shootings earlier this year that led to fears the bad old days had returned, city officials on Wednesday announced that 10 of the city’s most dangerous police precincts had seen a welcome 30% drop in shootings over the past five weeks.
The 10 precincts — all beefed up with more cops as part of the NYPD’s “Summer All Out Program” — also saw a 6% decline in major crimes, including robbery, burglary and murders in the same time period.
“Summer All Out is working,” de Blasio said. “It’s having a very positive impact on the safety of New Yorkers all over the city, and it’s something people should be very, very proud of.”
He said it’s also a bit of sweet revenge over naysayers who viewed a crime spike earlier this year as proof that the city was spiraling out of control under his watch.
During the first five months of the year, murders were up 19.5% and the number of shooting victims jumped 9.2% compared with the same time last year.
“I feel that the men and women of the NYPD have been vindicated,” said de Blasio. “I feel the leadership of the NYPD has been vindicated.”
The program was started one month earlier than it normally is to combat the spike in shootings, flooding 330 officers to the 10 precincts, which include Jamaica, Queens; East New York and Brownsville in Brooklyn, and Parkchester and Highbridge in the Bronx.
All but East New York and Parkchester had either fewer shootings than they did in 2014, or the same as last year.
The drop in shootings in the 10 neighborhoods helped lower the shootings figure citywide to just 1% over 2014 — a year that had some of the lowest crime rates since records began.
NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who announced the latest numbers with de Blasio in the Bronx, said he predicts 2015 will also go on record as a historically low crime year.
“In all likelihood, we’ll end this year with the lowest number of index crimes in the last 20-some-odd years overall,” he said.
They announced the “Summer All Out” crime stats in the 47th Precinct in the Bronx, which covers Edenwald, Williamsbridge and Baychester and has seen dramatic results since the program began on June 8.
The precinct had three shootings through July 13, compared with 10 during the same time period last year.
Elizabeth Gill, president of the precinct’s Community Council, welcomed the new officers to the precinct with a dinner in their honor.
“We wanted them to know that this community welcomed them. We want them here, we need them here, and this is our way of showing them that we appreciate they are here serving us,” she said.