NYPD officials said they have made more arrests so far this year than any other year since 1998. And they say serious crime is down as a result.
The announcement was made as part of a monthly crime report. Such reports compare the previous month’s crime numbers to the same month the year before. The October report trumpeted “steep declines” in robberies, grand larcenies and felony assaults, and also stated that shootings, murders and transit crimes in October fell compared to the same month last year.
“The presence of uniformed police officers on subway platforms and in train cars has instilled a sense of safety among riders, and this is further supported by crime data,” interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon said in a statement.
But some policing experts said comparing one month this year to the same month last year is a narrow way to slice the data, and added that comparing this year’s crime data so far with stats from the same period last year yields some troubling trends. Particularly, felony assaults – attacks that cause serious injury – are at their highest level in 25 years. Rapes have also risen according to NYPD data, with 1,441 reported so far this year – 17% more than the 1,228 reported over the same period in 2023.