New York City's major crime falls 5.6% in 2023, statistics for first two months of the year show

New York City saw a 5.6% drop in major crimes for February compared to the same month a year ago, a trend which NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Friday was “encouraging” and has contributed to a slight downward movement of crime so far in 2023.

The February crime numbers also showed the continuation of a year-long decline in homicides and shootings, which dipped in the month by 27.8% and 14.7% respectively compared to February of 2022.  There was also a drop of 9.1% in subway crimes for the month, the second consecutive monthly drop, NYPD statistics show.

“While it is early in the year, the crime statistics released today are encouraging as we saw significant reductions in major crimes across our street, subways and public housing developments in the month of February, “ Sewell said in a prepared statement.

Later Friday in a conversation with reporters, Sewell said that particular problem spots remain in Staten Island, where overall crime has continued to rise and northeast Queens, which has been plagued by organized robbery crews and larceny patterns.

Sewell also acknowledged that while overall major crimes are down so far for the full year by less than percentage point from 2022, it was still at a level markedly higher than it was in 2021.

Preliminary police data shows that for the year to date in 2023 major crimes like homicide, rape, burglary, robbery and grand larceny total just over 18,900 incidents, compared to about 12,500 for the same period in 2021.

“I am always going to try and drop that floor,” said Sewell about the higher 2023 numbers. “Obviously it is a different environment than what we had in 2021, we were fully reopened in 2022.”

With so many initiatives in the past several months to deal with crime hotspots in the subways and in retail theft, Sewell said she continues to be concerned about the welfare of officers and possible burnout, while fighting crime trends.

“We have to make sure we deploy our resources so that we don’t overwork our officers, but that we always make sure we keep our community safe,” said Sewell.

Recidivism is one issue that continues to impact crime trends and Sewell said  that the city is trying convince the legislature in Albany to make fixes in the bail reform law of 2019.

“I would like recidivism to be addressed and I have said since the beginning of last year that judicial discretion of judges, [they] should be able to consider whether a person is a public safety threat, whether to remand or set bail,” explained Sewell. “ I think if we address that, we address recividism, we will see a precipitous drop in the [crime] numbers we have.”

Crime expert Joseph Giacalone thinks that the drop in crime percentage needs to be greater.  "We are basically flat-lining," Giacalone said.

Giacalone, a former NYPD detective who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, believes the city would have to see a 30% reduction in crime to make a significant change in public safety.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.