Crime in New York City saw a decline in January compared to the same time last year, as authorities continue touting their work to combat lawlessness in the Big Apple.
“It is evident that the tremendous work being done by the men and women of the NYPD to confront gun violence head-on continues to drive significant reductions in violence and disorder across many categories,” said Police Commissioner Edward Caban. “These intensive efforts are having ripple effects citywide, and are enhancing quality of life and increasing public safety on a large scale.”
The major crime index, which includes six categories of felonies (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny auto), shows a 2.9% decline in January 2024, compared to the same month last year.
Of those six categories, five saw year-over-year declines — with the only exception being 15 more incidents of grand larceny in 2024, which marks an increase of 0.4%.
The murder rate saw the biggest percentage drop of all, as 27 people were killed in January 2024, compared with 36 in the previous year — a 25% drop.
Meanwhile, there were 33 less reported rapes in the Big Apple to kick off this year, which marked a 24.4% year-over-year decline.
Felony-level assaults dipped by a slight 1.5%, with 2,068 such incidents to kick off this year, compared with 2,100 in 2023.
Burglaries were 19.8% less pervasive in January 2024, with 1,065 recorded cases, relative to the 1,328 cases in 2023.
One particular point of pride for Mayor Eric Adams is the 3.8% decline in carjackings, as he hailed the NYPD’s work in both preventing and punishing thefts of vehicles on the roads of New York.
“Grand larceny auto is on the rise nationally, our administration got together and put in place a comprehensive plan and strategy — because one of the biggest investments a New Yorker would make is in their vehicle, and we wanted to make sure those vehicles are secure,” the mayor said on Monday. “We’ve done everything, from using devices to track vehicles, to using drones and other technology to go after those who steal cars.”
Hate crimes on the rise
While those major crime categories saw a nearly-uniform decline from last year, the city is still dealing with a significant uptick in hate crimes.
The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force investigated 45 incidents of misconduct motivated by bigotry in January of 2024, compared with 33 such cases in the same month of last year.
That increase was driven largely by the increase of hate crimes targeting Jewish victims, who were targets of 31 such incidents, relative to just 17 last January.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes have been on the rise since October, which authorities have attributed to the events in the Middle East, and war that has continued unfolding after Hamas terrorists launched a deadly attack on Israel.
The hot-button issue has been a source of major tension around the world, including New York City — which is home to more Jews than any city in the world at around 1.6 million.
Since October of 2023, antisemitic hate crimes saw a dramatic uptick, with 193 reported incidents from October to January — nearly double the 100 such infractions during the same timeframe a year prior.
There were 301 total hate crimes between October 2022 and January 2024.
Anti-Jewish hate crimes have come in many different forms in recent months, with victims being targeted by robbery, arson, assault and more.
Adams on Monday noted the uptick, and said the Police Department would remain committed to rooting out bias-motivated crimes.
“Hate crime numbers are increasing, driven by the increase in antisemitism and other forms of hate crimes, including Islamophobia,” Adams said. “And this is part of the trend we’ve seen going back, since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. We have witnessed this increase in hate crime, but the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force remains focused on reversing this trend.”
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