Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you very much, Commissioner. I want to offer my congratulations to the men and women of the NYPD – another fantastic month. I want to thank, of course, First Deputy Commissioner Tucker, all the members of the leadership who are here – a lot to be proud of.
It is also a pleasure to be here at the 1st Precinct, where this good work is done every day, keeping the people of this community safe.
What we’re seeing now is precision policing in action. We’re all seeing every single month more and more of the impact of neighborhood policing and the closer bonds between police and community. And that story will continue to grow and make an impact on this city.
Now, I wanted to start by saying one thing that is truly unusual that we’ve experienced in the last month – and it’s something I know is on everyone’s mind. Last month was the first time we had NYPD taking such a crucial role and huge role in providing security around Trump Tower. I know there’s been, legitimately, a lot of concern about how that’s going to play out. And one of those concerns of cost – of course is about the cost of providing the security. And as I’ve said, even though there’s work to be done with the federal government, I remain hopeful because when you look at the history of how the federal government has handled a number of other situations where NYPD has provided extraordinary efforts, such as the papal visit last year, there’s actually a pretty good track record on reimbursement. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.
Today, I’m sending this letter to President Obama to formally initiate the reimbursement process. We are going to be continuing very aggressively in the course of the next few days calls and meetings with members of the Obama administration and members of the Congress to nail down the reimbursements for the time between November 8th and January 20. That will be the responsibility of course of the current administration. So, this letter, and detailed budgetary letters, will go out today. A series of calls and meetings with administration officials and members of Congress will occur in the course of this week.
Further, as I said previously, we have become the process of dialogue with the incoming administration. I called Treasury Secretary-designate Steve Mnuchin to congratulate him, and we had a good conversation, including the fact that he fully understood that there was a real, important discussion to be had on how we deal with reimbursement issues going forward. He’s a native New Yorker. So, I think that is a very helpful reality. But this is the time now to really lean in to nailing down the reimbursement, particularly for the period up to January 20. Let me also note that what we will be asking in the letters today to the President, to the administration officials, to the Congress – we will be asking for up to $35 million in reimbursement for the period November 8th to January 20. That’s, again, up to $35 million for November 8th to January 20.
So back to the situation – November – really again so much for the NYPD to be proud of. Dermot Shea will go into details. But here’s what I want to emphasize. Just looking at this month of November – this 30-day period in 2016 versus the equivalent period one year ago – overall major crimes down 9.9 percent – almost exactly 10 percent decrease in overall major crime. And when you look at it numerically, it is striking. That is the difference between 9,094 major crimes versus 8,194. Hundreds and Hundreds of crimes stopped by the NYPD, meaning a real tangible impact on people’s lives.
Rape is down 20 percent. Robbery is down almost 16 percent. Burglaries are down 22 percent. There are definitely areas where we have to do better. And homicide is one of the them when you look at the month of November. But we know that this approach the NYPD is taking – the precision policing, plus neighborhood policing is more and more paying off, and these numbers are extraordinary.
Let me also note that we have not yet felt the full effect of the new officers coming on the job. We will get to that full complement – the 2,000 officer increase in terms of real patrol strength won’t be fully felt until January. And then I think you’ll see more and more impact from that addition to that police force – again, the first major addition to our force in 15 years. That’s going to play out more and more after January.
Finally, since it’s been such a part of the national discussion, I want to emphasize this simple fact. Since the height of the previous use of stop-and-frisk – 2011 – stop-and-frisk is now reduced 97 percent. Let me say it again – stop-and-frisk is down 97 percent since the high-water mark in 2011. And what we have seen is consistent drop in crime, and particularly this year – consistent increases in gun seizures by the NYPD. I think that says it all.
Deputy Commissioner for Operations Dermot Shea, NYPD: Good morning, everyone. When we look at November’s numbers, I’m going to be quoting statistics to you as of December 1st. Public Information Office will have all these numbers for distribution. November continued the year-long trend of reduced crime in New York City. Which just under four weeks left to go in 2016, we’re poised to have really historic levels of both index crimes, as well as gun violence seen in New York City. We are not finished. Just as we sit here today, we’re reviewing across the Department – deputy commissioner officers, different bureaus and divisions, all units – to look forward to 2017 – how we can push crime down even further. And we believe that we can.
Issues of data collection, analysis, deployment – with Terry Monahan sitting next to me – with patrol, with Bob Boyce’s detectives and cases, as well as outreach – all areas examined to how we can even push crime further down.
In terms of overall index crime for November, as the Mayor alluded to, we were down nearly 10 percent, or over 900 crimes.
Murder – we recorded 23 murders, versus 22 the prior year. Three of those 23 were re-classifications, which leaves 20 actually occurring this November. The re-classifications – one was from 1993, one from 2003, and one from 2011.
Rape – down 20 percent.
Robbery – 233 fewer robberies this year – down over 15 percent.
Felonious assault – down six percent.
Burglary – down over 22 percent.
And this is across broad sections – different boroughs, different precincts. We’re seeing dramatic crime decreases.
Grand larceny – down nearly five percent.
Stolen vehicles – 54 fewer in New York City. Pushing the record down even further – down 8.8 percent for November.
We saw reductions in transit crime. We saw reductions in housing crime.
In terms of shooting incidents – if you remember last November, we recorded 80 shooting incidents – that was a record at the time, never before seen in New York City since we’ve recorded shooting incidents. Versus that 80, this November we recorded 67 shooting incidents – a reduction of 16.2 percent.
Where does that bring us? Through the first 11 months of November – through November of 2016 – we’re down 3.8 percent overall in index crime. It’s a reduction of over 3,600 index crimes. When you look at shooting incidents, and again, this is through the end of November – we’ve actually gained on these leads.
But through the end of November, we’re down 107 shooting incidents – over ten percent shooting reduction. 936 shootings, which is a lot, and we’re going to push it even lower. But where were we last year? 1,043. We are shattering the prior record in 2013, in terms of shooting incidents in New York City. Murders – down 15 through the end of November for a 4.6 percent reduction.
And I’ll just end quickly as a frequently do mention the enforcement efforts that’s leading to this. Arrests through November 30th – down over 23,500 – just this year. Over two years, we’re down over 21 percent in arrests – far greater number. Something I’ve mentioned before with this reduction in arrests, felony arrests up, gun arrests up over nine percent. We’re not doing this alone. The most important party in all of this is the community and the tips that we are receiving, whether it’s 3-1-1, 9-1-1, whether it’s attending a community council meeting, whether it’s showing up and following up at court with an arrest, so I praise the work that the public and all our prosecutors have in these numbers. We are really, truly not doing this alone. And those are the biggest part. Thank you.
