Amid a spate of slashings and stabbings throughout the city, a scrambling NYPD outlined Tuesday new ways it hopes to curb the violence.
The operation, dubbed “Cutting Edge,” will focus on trying to prevent the assaults where and when they are most often happening, as well as create a new way to track the details of the attacks, much like the department did with shootings in the 1990s, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said.
“In the case of the majority of stabbings and slashings, it does not appear at this time that any discernible core group of offenders exists to the extent as is often the case with gun violence,” Bratton said, speaking at police headquarters. “In other words, it’s not gang related, it’s not organized crime fighting or control of narcotics trafficking.”
Bratton said there has been about a 22 percent increase in slashings and stabbings this year, compared to the same time period last year. Of those, about 2 percent of the 916 slashings and stabbings in 2016 occurred in the subway system. Between 2 to 3 percent occur in homeless shelters, and 277 attacks were considered domestic in nature.
Bratton said “perception sometimes becomes reality” and the NYPD has implemented more patrols on the subway, and efforts to train Department of Homeless Services officers and security personnel.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said about 23 percent of the slashings and stabbings occurred between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. The department will be focusing patrols on nightclubs and “illegal social clubs,” he said, as part of the new effort to curtail the violent assaults.
“The NYPD does not rest on its laurels. When we see a new problem, we go after it and we apply new approaches,” de Blasio said. “So we will be responding aggressively to the uptick in stabbings and slashings. The way we do it is the way we’ve always done it: through precision policing.”
While it is not illegal to own a kitchen knife, for example, police said it is illegal to carry any knife outside your home with a blade over 4-inches long or display any knife of any length in public. In addition, it is illegal to sell box cutters to anyone under 21 years old.
