While murders drop, other crimes rise under Adams in Queens
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Mayor Eric Adams celebrated a drop in several major crimes in the past year on Wednesday. However, many major crimes have risen since the mayor first took office two years ago. Screenshot via NYC mayor’s office/Twitter
By Jacob Kaye
Though murders and a handful of other crimes have dropped significantly over the past two years, a bulk of the seven major felonies tracked by the NYPD have risen since Mayor Eric Adams first took office.
Touting his administration’s efforts to combat crime, Adams joined top brass at the NYPD on Wednesday to discuss decreases to crime over the past year when compared to the year prior.
Compared to 2022, which was Adams’ first year in office, murders citywide dropped by nearly 12 percent. In Queens North, murders dropped by around 14 percent and in Queens South murders dropped by nearly 50 percent.
Citywide, rapes, robberies, grand larcenies, burglaries and shootings also dropped in 2023 when compared to 2022.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the mayor, who made reducing gun violence a cornerstone of his administration, specifically celebrated the dip in shootings in the past year.
The number of shooting victims dropped by around 26 percent citywide in 2023 and the number of shooting incidents fell by around 25 percent. In Queens North, shooting victims and incidents dropped by 15 and 7 percent respectively, and in Queens South, shooting victims and incidents dropped by around 45 and 46 percent respectively.
Adams and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban chalked the decrease up to the NYPD’s procession policing efforts and the work of the agency’s Neighborhood Safety Teams, a controversial unit tasked with getting guns off the streets.
“Overall crime was down in 2023,” the mayor said from One Police Plaza on Wednesday. “That’s the promise that we made and a promise that we kept, and a promise that has saved lives.”
While the rate of a number of crimes decreased last year when compared to the year prior, they largely increased when compared to the year before Adams took office.
NYPD data shows that major crimes, including rape, felony assault, burglary and grand larceny auto, have risen over the past two years.
Citywide, robberies have increased by nearly 22 percent over the two-year period. Felony assaults have increased by 20 percent, burglary has increased by nearly 7 percent, grand larceny has increased by nearly 23 percent and grand larceny auto has increased by nearly 52 percent.
Those numbers are similar in Queens North and South.
In Queens North, robberies have increased by 70 percent since Adams took office, felony assaults have increased by 42.5 percent, burglaries have increased by 14 percent, grand larceny has increased by nearly 17 percent and grand larceny auto have increased by 95.1 percent.
In Queens South, robberies jumped by 9 percent, felony assaults rose by 14 percent, burglaries increased by 10 percent, grand larcenies increased by 21 percent and grand larceny auto increased by 55 percent.
Also in Queens South, murderers dropped by nearly 51 percent over the past two years and rapes dropped by 8 percent.
In Queens North, murders decreased by 26.7 percent and rapes increased by 14.8 percent.
NYPD leadership made specific note of the drops in shootings and murders in Queens South in recent years.
“When you look at those areas that really had substantial decreases not in just shootings, but in crime, we tie it to the precision policing model,” said Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri.”
Adams and NYPD leadership also celebrated on Wednesday work done to enforce quality of life issues.
“Do you want to live in a city where people are putting on a tent in front of your home? Do you want to live in a city when you come out with your children and someone is injecting themselves with drugs on your stoop…Do you want someone riding his scooter up and down the block and don't even care if they're on the sidewalk or not?” Adams said. “That's the question that I'm asking, I'm not unclear, no, I've been clear from the beginning – I protect working people in the city.”
