New York City experienced an unprecedented surge in serious crime last year, according to internal NYPD data, an apparent contradiction of Mayor Eric Adams’s continued claims that “crime is down” in the city.
Further, the seven major felony offenses—murder, rape, robbery, assault, car theft, grand larceny, and burglary—spiked to 127,111 in 2023, the highest total since 2006, according to the police data.
However, during his State of the City address in January, Mr. Adams, a former police officer who campaigned on a law-and-order platform, insisted that “crime is down.”
“When we came into office two years ago, we had a clear mission: protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make this city more livable,” Mr. Adams said. “Two years in, we are seeing real results. Crime is down, jobs are up, and every day, we are delivering for working-class New Yorkers.”
“Those who are violent, who have no place in the city—doesn’t matter if they’re long-standing New Yorkers or they’re new arrivals—violence is not accepted in the city,” he said.
Although overall crime, including violent crimes, has reached unprecedented highs, the mayor and staff have pointed to a decrease in murders since Mr. Adams first took office in 2022 as evidence that the city is moving in the right direction.
However, crime and violence in New York City are “significantly higher” than even the most recent record-setting numbers have indicated, according to a New York Police Department (NYPD) source.
NYPD officers have also been incentivized to not report so-called minor offenses in an effort to keep the numbers as low as possible, according to the source, who claimed that pressure has come from higher-ups to maintain the narrative that crime has plateaued or is going down.
“I hate to say it, but a lot of what we are seeing is public relations,” the source, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution, said. “It’s not a secret that the crime numbers, especially assaults, are way higher than anyone wants to admit.
“There is a real problem—we [the NYPD] aren’t getting the support we need, but everyone just wants to continue looking the other way. It’s as if the city is suicidal.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Heritage Foundation researcher Zack Smith, author of “Rogue Prosecutors,” told The Epoch Times that the new data don’t represent the true scope of the issue facing New Yorkers.
“The situation is worse than what’s showing up in the numbers,” Mr. Smith said. “Everyone knows that not all crimes are reported. And all reported crimes don’t result in an arrest, so the situation for New Yorkers is even worse than it first appears.”
In recent years, an increasing number of New Yorkers, including police, have been assaulted. From Jan. 1 to March 31, 2023, 1,251 on- and off-duty police across the city were assaulted, compared with 949 over the same period in 2022, according to NYPD crime statistics.
A total of 2,516 officers resigned from the department in 2023, according to police pension data previously obtained by The Epoch Times. It is the fourth most in the past decade and 43 percent more than the 1,750 who resigned from their positions in 2018. Further, the data show that the number of officers quitting before they reach the 20 years required to receive their full pensions has increased by 104 percent since 2020.
In January, officers’ jobs became more difficult after the New York City Council pushed through controversial legislation dubbed the “How Many Stops Act,” which requires police to officially document any encounter they have with the public, including logging the race, gender, and age of any person to whom they speak.
The recent exodus comes on top of years of officer attrition, eroding the ability of the nation’s largest police force to serve and protect to dangerously low levels, according to Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Hendry.
And the crime wave isn’t unique to the Big Apple. Large cities across the nation have witnessed surging rates of violent crime become accepted as the new norm, according to researcher and author Mr. Smith.
“Unfortunately, this same scenario is playing out in cities across the country,” Mr. Smith said. “Keep in mind that in many cities, even though crime rates may be slightly down from last year, the violent crime rates are still higher than they were several years ago.”
