NYC crime: NYPD reports another drop in major felonies in September, though shootings spiked

Major NYC crime dropped for the ninth consecutive month, NYPD officials reported Tuesday — crediting the department’s “laser focus” on gun crime for making the city’s streets safer.

Interim Commissioner Tom Donlon provided his first monthly crime data report alongside Mayor Eric Adams, who appointed Donlon to the job last month following the resignation of former top cop Edward Caban amid an ongoing federal investigation.

Despite the tumult that enveloped the upper leadership of the NYPD and City Hall, Mayor Adams noted that the men and women in blue have worked hard to achieve a “comfort level” of safety by consistently decreasing overall crime throughout the past nine months of 2024.

“What you’re seeing is the foundation of this department with men and women in place,” the mayor told reporters at the Oct. 8 briefing inside 1 Police Plaza. “We’re seeing an infrastructure that is well organized, well prepared, and knows how to execute a clear plan that we started at the beginning of this administration And when we came into office, our priorities were clear: New York will be the safest big city in America.”

Interm Police Comissionier Thomas Donlon.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

Though murders, robberies, burglaries, grand larcenies and grand larceny auto (car thefts) all dropped in September, the NYPD did report 91 shooting incidents for the month, an 18.2% increase from the 77 tallied in September 2023. Even so, shootings dropped during the third quarter of 2024, and remain down 8.7% year to date — with 693 incidents reported between Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2024, down from 759 through the first nine months last year.

Even with the rise in shootings during September, the NYPD says it helped prevent more episodes of gun violence by taking 466 illegal firearms off the streets over those 30 days. So far in 2024, the NYPD has seized close to 5,000 guns.

“Now, the NYPD’s laser-like focus on people who illegally carry or shoot guns in our communities is driving down violence and disorder across the five boroughs,” Donlon said. “And thanks to these efforts, we have preserved lives and maintained the unity of families. While we have more to do in every neighborhood, we vow to remain relentless in this vital work.”

Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

The NYPD is also fighting crime as part of a citywide effort to stop illegal mopeds and “ghost cars” (unregistered vehicles with phony license plates) from traveling on the streets. The vehicles, police officials have said, are often used to commit violent crime. Donlon reported that close to 30,000 illegal mopeds and ghost cars have been removed this year in various joint operations with other agencies such as the MTA and the Sanitation Department.

Below the streets of New York, Donlon also touted an 8.7% decrease in transit crime in September; year to date, serious felonies in the subway system are down 5.1% after starting off the year in January with a spike that resulted in several surges of NYPD officers.

“We put more cops on the streets and on our subways, and the results are clear,” Donlon said.

Even with the focus on making the streets and subway safe from violent crime, the NYPD continues to battle a troubling hate crime increase that has persisted since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on Israel.

In September 2024, the NYPD reported 57 hate crimes, 17 more than the number tallied at the same point in 2023. However, more than half of the hate crimes last month (29) targeted Jewish individuals — continuing the disturbing year-long spike in antisemitism since last year’s attacks and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Read More: https://www.amny.com/police-fire/courts/