Julian Phillips, Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, Police Department: Well, I see we have a packed house today. We have a lot of important information for you and I'm glad you're here. Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to One Police Plaza. Now the team you see assembled here are those who have been elected and sworn to keep the citizens of New York City safe. And this team is starting off, the Honorable Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, First Deputy Commissioner Edward Caban, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LiPetri, Chief of Detectives James Essig, Chief of Patrol John Chell, Chief of Transit Michael Kemper, and last but not least, Chief of Housing Martine Materasso. Now you all know it's been one year in which this administration has taken the leadership with a mandate. A mandate to reduce crime. And they are here to report their progress. With that, I will turn it over to the Honorable Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you. Thanks so much and thank all of you for joining us today. How you doing, Marcia? And the real call at the beginning of the year was clear. It was about making sure our city was safe. And we had to put together the right team to do so. And it was important to me as we dealt with crime in our city, we also had to deal with the morale issue. And I had to find the right leader that could give the morale that was needed to the men and women who put on a uniform. And also strategically impact on ensuring our city was safe, but without using some of the abusive forms of public safety that we saw in the past. And we found that in our commissioner. And I cannot thank Commissioner Sewell enough for taking on this awesome responsibility. Major sports players would state they don't want to play in New York.
The onslaught of criticism, critique, observation makes this a challenging occupation and there's no greater big leagues in the sports of public protection than the New York City Police Department. And Commissioner Sewell came in, she put together a real plan, a real plan of operation. And she built a team around her and that team is here today. And there are many more levels that we're going to have to go through until we get the product that we know New Yorkers deserve. But let's be clear, we entered this season of public protection in January 1st, 2022, crime was on a trend increasing upward. We're leaving 2022 where crime is trending downward. And many of the major areas, some of the major initiatives that the police commissioner put in place, we're seeing significant decreases in shootings, homicides, apprehensions of guns. It's clearly a 27-year high.
We're looking at some of those major issues around public safety that we knew we had to tackle. But we're doing far more than just the role of policing. Under the leadership of Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, we're seeing a real coordination between all of our law enforcement entities. One team understanding that the New York City Police Department cannot and should not have to do this alone. Historically, whenever we talked about public protection, we only talked about the NYPD. That was unfair. It was not right. And we have other law enforcement entities that are now playing a major role as we tackle public protection in the city. I'm extremely proud of this team. We are not spiking the ball. We know we have more to do. New Yorkers must be safe based on the stats and they must feel safe based on what they're seeing.
That is my obligation. To ensure that safety is felt and actual and that is the direction we are moving in. And every day, we're out in the subway system, we're walking our streets. We're engaging with our police officers and we're making sure we move towards a city that is, as I always stated, the prerequisite to our prosperity, public safety.
And lastly, I want to commend the men and women over New Year's. I don't believe people fully understand what it was like to secure the safety of hundreds of thousands of people. While you have an incident with three officers who were assaulted by an individual who had one intention and that's to harm men and women who protect us. They immediately brought that threat under control. They apprehended the guilty, the person who committed the crime. They discharged one round. Keeping in mind how many people were in the area, they hit the suspect, they subdued him, he was arrested. The three officers received healthcare from our expert medical facilities.
You saw our city operate at its best and they continue to go to protect the hundred thousands of people who were there as the festivities continued. That is the quality product that this commissioner has produced and this agency has continued to put out day in and day out. And so we are going to continue to do our job. This amazing team that's here is a symbol of the years and years of knowledge of law enforcement and how we can continue to evolve our police agencies to the level that all of you expect and our overall pub public protection apparatus.
So I want to thank them personally for their commitment for continue to move forward through some very challenging times. Covid, monkeypox, losing two officers at the beginning of January, having a number of officers who were shot during that same period. And in spite of all of that, they continue to put on that uniform every day and run towards danger to protect our city from those who have made up their minds to hurt innocent people.
I look forward to my conversation this afternoon with my lawmakers in Albany as we continue to lean into how do we continue in the gains that this administration has attempted to do around public protection. So again, thank you for coming out today and I'm going to turn it over to the police commissioner of the City of New York, Keechant Sewell.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell: Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And thank you all for being here. Good afternoon. From the start of 2022, the NYPD was focused on combating crime and violence in this city. Shootings in 2021 were at a 15-year high and had been climbing since 2018. In the beginning of 2022, our year over year crime spike was at about 45 percent and at times 48 percent. We have steadily and diligently cut into that increase and we are now sitting at about 22 percent. We knew we would not turn this city around on a dime. We did not stumble into these decreases. They were not happenstance. We strategized, planned, deployed, recalibrated when necessary, conducted investigations and relentlessly followed up. Beginning in January with the mayor's Blueprint to End Gun Violence. In February our Supplemental Deployment Strategy, March, our Subway Safety Plan, Neighborhood Safety Teams initiatives to improve quality of life and business recovery. Continuing into the year, our Transit Safety Plan, our Summer Violence Reduction Strategy, and our Year End Crime Mitigation Strategy that we announced back in September.
We added additional investigators to our precinct and warrant commands to be able to quickly detect patterns, identify subjects and apprehend offenders. We deployed foot patrols into our commercial districts, shifted resources where we saw crime spikes focusing on the drivers of crime, those that commit crime and holding them accountable. We've had highs and lows, but these decreases represent people. Fewer victims and a safer city. New Yorkers, in the fourth quarter of 2022, major crime was down in New York City. In the current seven and 28 days, major crime is down in New York City. These decreases are the direct result of a year's long strategy. The dedication, commitment, and sacrifice of the women and men of the NYPD. Our partners in the MTA, local, state and federal, public and private, and the communities we serve.
We know we have a lot more work to do. We know there will continue to be challenges because that is the nature of our profession. The NYPD is confident of the future of this department and our city. We will never stop holding those accountable who continue to prey on the people in businesses of New York City. With this momentum going forward, we are confident in the coming year. We expect to see significant progress and the continuance of the crime trends that we're seeing. I'd like to turn it over now to our recently promoted chief of department, Jeffrey Maddrey.
Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Department, Police Department: Thank you, commissioner, and good morning everyone. We have a talented team of police executives assembled who discussed some of the challenges of 2022 and how this department and our members courageously went into the streets and removed numerous guns, addressed quality of life issues and solved other problems within various communities. Our officers are the best and I commend them for the work that they do. This department works best and performs at its highest levels when it leverages initiatives with many partnerships. Working with our district attorneys, our local clergy, our crisis management teams, community-based organizations and grassroots leaders from every corner of this city is how we will increase public safety. And a great example of that in 2022 was Labor Day weekend. Through our partnerships with various organizations, we worked as one team and we kept the community safe while people were able to go out and enjoy celebrating their heritage and their culture.
We will continue to build on the neighborhood policing philosophy and through our youth coordination officers, increase our reach into the lives of young people to prevent negative encounters with the criminal justice system. For example, our options program where we work with young people that provide life skills, financial literacy, and teach them to avoid certain pitfalls. This is what we'll do to continue to connect with our youth. Enforcement is just one of our tools. Being a resource to our city and being helpful to our citizens is how we'll make our great city even better. Partnerships are the key and it's how we'll increase public safety, which is the common goal of everyone.
That's my commitment and that's this department's commitment. To work with established partners, seek out and build new partnerships and continue to be a useful resource to our collective vision and knowledge and willingness to meet challenges head on with viable solutions. That's how we'll keep this city safe. Thank you. And now I'll pass this over to the chief of Crime Control Strategies, Michael LiPetri.
Michael LiPetri, Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Police Department: Thank you, chief. So as the commissioner said, we saw 12 months of steady progress. I'd like to just discuss where we were, what we have achieved, and the direction this agency is heading. We finished the fourth quarter of 2022 with the most successful fourth quarter shooting reduction in the CompStat history. Shooting incidents in the fourth quarter were down 32 percent with 147 fewer people shot in New York City. Shootings were down 11 of the last 13 weeks. Major crime was down the last seven weeks. Every borough in regards to violence experienced significant double digit decreases for the quarter. For the year, 268 less incidents with over 300 people.
With over 300 fewer people shot. Like the commissioner said, we had a 15-year high in 2021. We had a lot of work to do. And the first few months of this year were trying. We saw increases in shootings for the first quarter. We were up 37 incidents with 44 more people shot. Took time to put into place new strategies, new deployment, who the drivers of violence are. The connectivity between not just precincts, not just geographic, but citywide connectivity. Who bore the brunt of the shooting increase for the first quarter was the borough of the Bronx. 35 percent of all the shootings for the first quarter occurred in the Bronx. So what was the plan? Commissioner discussed the plan. We moved not hundreds but thousands of officers into Bronx, both on the patrol level, the detective level. Our technology increased substantially in the Bronx. We moved 75 cameras, approximately 75 cameras, multiple mobile plate readers into the Bronx.
So I gave you the analysis, I gave you the plan. Now I'll give you the results of the plan. From year end, from May 1st, the Bronx saw the largest raw decrease in shootings in the city. They went from worst to the best. In October, there was 13 shooting incidents in the Bronx. That is the best October that the Bronx has ever had in the CompStat history. What's the correlation? Precision policing and the men and women in the Bronx who are doing the police work.
30 percent of all the gun arrests in the city are coming from the Bronx. I'd like to get into gun arrests. Mayor said it. 27-year high. 27-year high in gun arrests in New York City. Go back 27 years and see how many more shooting incidents we had. And that also goes for our seven major arrests. We're at a 21 (inaudible) 21 years ago we had approximately 30,000 more arrests. It's precision. Three quarters of our gun arrests are being made by our patrol officers, our housing officers, and our transit officers. We're doing it better, more precise than we've ever done it in the past. Our decline in prosecutions are the lowest level since my office has been tracking from 2015.
So who are we arresting with guns out there? Well, I can tell you we're arresting convicted felons, people with previously open felonies. But I want to speak about one specific arrest and show you the data behind this arrest. So this individual I'm talking about is one of the 750 people that the NYPD has identified that's basically responsible for 30 percent of the shootings, in any role, over the past two years. So this person arrested in November is a known crew member. He's also a convicted felon. He was arrested twice within one year. Those two arrests were then consolidated into one court disposition. He was arrested in November. He's now remanded. Again, he's one of these 750 people.
So we know what crew he belongs to. We also know the areas that that crew frequents. It's four precincts across (inaudible.) Those four precincts in the same period last year had 22 shootings. After his gun arrests, we've had five. Patrol Borough Brooklyn South for that period has had 12 total shootings this year compared to 33 last year. That's precision policing. That's the men and women of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South arresting the right person in the right place with a firearm.
Seven major struggles, no doubt about it. We've had a tough year, but I like the way it's trending. For the fourth quarter, we're down 2 percent, but more importantly for December, we were down 12 percent. Those decreases continue. (Inaudible) major arrests by NYPD members. Again, that's a 21 (inaudible) substantially more (inaudible) at that time.
Just to get into some of the crime. Robbery (inaudible) in robbery arrests this year. For the fourth quarter we were basically flat. We struggled for the first three quarters with an increase of 37 percent. So who's my robber? Well, he or she is a convicted felon 25 percent of the time, (inaudible) still have an open felony 25 percent of the time. 20 percent, 20 percent of our robbery arrests in quarter four were of individuals under the age of 18. For the year, 17 percent (inaudible) robbing New Yorkers.
The statistics are out there. The trends continue (inaudible) with 10 percent of our shooting victims. 10 percent of our shooting victims in New York City are (inaudible), the only demographic (inaudible) up substantially. Every other age category is down when you track it between 10 and 17 and 18 and 24 and so on. 43 percent of our robberies this year, we have an arrest effected, with another 7 percent of wanted individuals. So approximately 50 percent of our robberies will be connected to an arrest.
Burglary. Another crime fueled by recidivism. I'm just going to give you the numbers. 439 people have been arrested for three or more burglaries this year (inaudible) 496 in 2017, and guess what? Half of them are convicted felons and not a lot of them are in jail. 1,200 individuals arrested for a burglary this year, 1,200, went on to commit another felony within 60 days. In 2017 was 300. it That's recidivism. And these are arrests. These aren't investigations where we think somebody's doing this. Handcuffs are going on these people. It's arrests.
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, Mike, can you repeat that?
Chief LiPetri: Sure. Approximately 1,200 people have been arrested for a burglary this year that then go on to commit another felony within 60 days. In 2017 the exact number is 312.
Grand larcenies. We've struggled all year, and we know what that's fueled by. It's been well documented. And that's retail theft. A lot of you know, if not all of you, the mayor's had his summit. I've had multiple meetings. Multiple meetings with large stores, small stores, along with the police commissioner, along with everybody up here. 63,000 shoplift complaints this year. We arrested 327 people. 327 people that account for 30 percent of all the arrests. Of all the arrests. 327 people are 30 percent of our 22,000. Half of them, or almost half, are convicted felons. And guess what? 235 of them, so 235 out of 327, are walking around the streets of New York right now, doing what? Unfortunately, making stores close or making families wait 15 minutes, 20 minutes to get something unlocked because there's not a lot of consequences. So I'd just like to reiterate, we have a lot to do. We've made steady progress, and we will continue to make steady progress. Thank you.
Phillips: Chief of Detectives James Essig.
James Essig, Chief of Detectives, Police Department: Good afternoon, everybody. Chief LiPetri spoke about the reduction in homicides and shootings in 2022. There are many contributing factors to that, but a very significant one is the amount of arrests detectives are making for these offenses. In 2022, 1,411 arrests were made which were linked to shootings and homicides. Consider that in the prior two years, when we had more shootings and homicides, we made 1,263 in 2021, 961 in 2020, and 840 in 2019.
Our clearance rates for shootings and homicides are at or near all time highs, with a current year murder clearance rate of 65 percent, which was 58 percent in 2021, and in 2020 it was 52 percent. Unofficially, the UCR clearance rate, including prior (inaudible) 2022 will be 83 percent, or the fifth-highest since records were being kept in 1990. Our shooting clearance rates for this year are 44 and a half percent is the third highest in 15 years. This while dealing with additional challenges of masked-up perpetrators, the use of autos, scooters, and the district attorneys demanding more evidence.
Additionally, our long-term investigations have had a significant impact on violent crime and narcotics. Our strategy in long-term cases is to dismantle drug crews, most times based on community complaints, and target the drivers of violence, our organized gangs and narcotics enterprises, whether it be on the street, in housing developments, or in residential areas.
Last year we had 143 long-term cases, of which 42 were known violent street gangs. This resulted in 667 arrests. Included in those arrests were seizures of 1,373 kilos of cocaine. Three kilos of crack cocaine with an estimated street value of $48.2 million. 166 kilograms of heroin, which is 460,000 glassine envelopes, with a street value of $13 million. 5,000 pounds of marijuana, a street value of $10 million. 473 firearms. $13.2 million in U.S. currency. And what's being described by many as the number one public health crisis in America, we seized 485 kilos of fentanyl with a street value of $19.4 million. I'll now like to turn it over to Chief John Chell, the chief of patrol.
John Chell, Chief of Patrol, Police Department: Good afternoon, everybody. Just want to touch on a couple successes for 2022, and strategy shifts that patrol took part in. First and foremost, our Neighborhood Safety Teams that were established last March. We removed 431 guns off the street. One out of every four encounters by our Neighborhood Safety Teams resulted in a firearm being removed from the street.
Quality of life initiatives. Big component, big strategy what we focused on. We focused on illegal bikes, ghost cars, paper plates, ATVs. It's a quality of life issue, but also is conflated with some of our drivers of violence. People doing robberies on motorbikes, ATVs, ghost cars with paper plates. We really hit this hard as a police department, as an agency. We took over 16,000 illegal motorbikes, ATVs, and ghost cars off the street. Over 6,000 arrests, over 20,000 summonses.
We listened to our Business Improvement Districts who were complaining about illegal peddling, illegal vending. We seized over $30 million in retail value of high-end counterfeit property. We took 35 cannabis trucks off the streets of Times Square at the request of the Business Improvement District. We took a look at our homeless initiative. We visited over 4,100 homeless encampments, and we cleaned up over 2,400 of those. And what's key to this is we did it with our new interagency partners and city in the city. And the mission is clear. One city, one mission to get this city back on track.
Lastly, strategies in deployment. Technology that we already have. Information sharing, merging of resources, field communications. We put together an apprehension strategy in the last quarter of this year that has paid great dividends in regards to apprehending people who were committing one, two, three, four, five robberies at a time in multiple boroughs. And it had a definite impact on the decrease in the fourth quarter we explained here, and the crime trending down. And these strategies are just going to get better and better in 2023. Thank you.
Phillips: Chief of Transit Michael Kemper.
Michael Kemper, Chief of Transit, Police Department: Good afternoon. We ended the year with a 29.6 percent increase in crime versus last year. That said, we ended the year with some very encouraging successes. Let me say this. 2020 and 2021 were extraordinarily challenging years in the subway system due to pandemic-related complexities. So to give us a better view of where we stand, we looked at 2019 and prior pre-pandemic years. When comparing 2022 crime versus 2019, subway crime was down 7.7 percent and it was the lowest since 2014. Matter of fact, when comparing 2022 overall crime in transit to pre-pandemic years, it was the third-lowest year in over 25 years.
Mayor Adams: I'm sorry, chief, can you say that again?
Chief Kemper: Yes, sir. When comparing 2022 crime versus 2019, subway crime was down 7.7 percent and it was the lowest since 2014. Matter of fact, when comparing 2022 overall crime in transit to pre-pandemic years, it was the lowest year in over 25 years. And let me tell you this, that's where the record stopped. If I'm a betting man, it would've been much longer than 25 years.
In relation to safety in the subway system, this administration has made historic commitments. Starting with the mayor's Subway Safety Plan and then with the Cops, Cameras, and Care program, more offices have been assigned to patrol the subway system than in recent history. 1,200 additional officers patrol the subway system each day and this plan is paying dividends. From January 1st to October 24th, crime in the subway system was up 41.6 percent. As a result of the investment, and starting on October 25th to the end of the year, December 31st, major crime in the subway system was down 4.6 percent versus 2021, which includes a 28.8 percent reduction in robberies.
So we went from a very concerning increase in crime for the first 10 months of the year to a sharp turnaround during the last nine weeks of the year. In fact, this was the lowest nine-week year-end period for major crime in transit since 2009. Our team has worked hard this year. Over 1.5 million train patrols were performed by NYPD officers. Enforcement was up in all areas in the transit system. Arrests were up 47 percent with a 38 percent increase in robbery arrests and an 18 percent increase in felony assault arrests. 35 people were arrested for illegally possessing 37 guns in the subway system this year, a 21 percent increase versus last year.
And our cops have done so much more. From jumping on the tracks to saving people, saving overdose victims, rendering aid to people in need, your cops stepped up to every challenge that came their way. It is our goal and it is our mission to reduce crime, keep people safe, and ensure people feel safe when using the subway system. Thank you. I'll now pass it off to Chief Martine Materasso, chief of Housing.
Martine Materasso, Chief of Housing, Police Department: Thank you. As we close 2022, the Housing Bureau met a number of challenges head on by reducing both shootings and homicides while, at the same time, increasing gun arrests and addressing quality of life issues. Our officers delivered a high level of service that had a positive impact on overall public safety for the residents. When analyzing violence reduction within the Housing Bureau, housing saw a 14 percent reduction in shootings and a 50 percent decrease in homicides. Homicides across the city are down 13 percent, driven in large by the reduction experience in NYCHA.
A large portion of this crime reduction strategy is the removal of illegal firearms. The Housing Bureau has remained steady in its commitment to getting illegal guns off the street and out of our developments. In 2022, 318 firearms have been removed, resulting in 324 individuals charged with possession. Leading the charge is PSA 3 NST team with 52 of those guns.
As our focus is eyed for reduction in violence, we understand, and I have heard firsthand for many residents, the continued need for quality of life enforcement. They say they want to see the cops out there and they want to see us addressing quality of life issues. As a result, our PSAs have collectively issued over 5,000 C summonses and old summonses. This is 154 percent increase from last year. Included in these complaints are the reckless use of dirt bikes and ATVs. In response, we have seized 629 unregistered vehicles.
In the year ahead, we look to continue this downward trend in violence as we step forward into 2023. We will remain steadfast in our violence and crime reduction efforts and we'll continue to increase our community engagement, making New York City housing safe for all. Thank you
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