NYPD faces City Council hearing on crime stats and complaint reports
The Public Safety Committee will ask police officials how crime data is collected and audited, and why some residents say officers discouraged their complaints.
On Wednesday, Sept. 16, senior NYPD officials are set to appear before the City Council’s Public Safety Committee at City Hall. Lawmakers want answers on how the department gathers and checks its crime numbers, and on why certain categories of crime are still running high.
Oswald Feliz, the Bronx Democrat who chairs the committee, called the oversight hearing to examine crime categories that need attention, felony assaults among them. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is not on the list of officials expected to testify. The Mamdani administration also isn’t planning to have its Office of Community Safety represented.
NYC crime numbers compared with 2019
According to NYPD figures, major crime across the five boroughs dropped 6.6% this August versus August of last year, and shootings and murders sit at historic lows. Not every category improved. Hate crimes are 15.8% higher than during the same period last year, rapes have risen 3.2% year to date, and felony assaults went up 3.1% in August.
Feliz said the city has made progress on shootings and murders, but measured against 2019 there is “still significant room for progress.” Department data he cited show major felonies down nearly 6% from last year yet almost 25% higher than the same stretch of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he wants the committee to hold a hearing like this at the end of every year. Violence in some Bronx neighborhoods is also on the agenda.
Residents who say complaints were never taken
Several council members are expected to press police officials about residents who say officers discouraged them from filing criminal complaints. One case likely to come up is a social media video posted this week in which a man claimed he was harassed and nearly attacked in Washington Square Park, then brushed off by officers when he told them about it. Council members also plan to bring New Yorkers with similar experiences to the hearing.
“If the numbers say one thing and New Yorkers are experiencing another, we need to understand why,” said Councilmember Joann Ariola, a Queens Republican. Councilmember Phil Wong, a Queens Democrat, urged the NYPD to release details of its audits of the report-taking process and to identify cases in which a complaint was owed but never filed.
Quick answers
What is the City Council asking the NYPD about?
Lawmakers plan to question officials on how crime data is gathered and checked, the department's strategies for reducing crime, categories that remain high, and residents' claims that officers talked them out of filing complaints.
Is crime in NYC down?
Overall, major crime dropped 6.6% this August versus a year earlier. Hate crimes are up 15.8%, rapes are up 3.2% year to date, and August saw a 3.1% increase in felony assaults. Major felonies are still nearly 25% higher than in the same period of 2019.
