NYPD: Shootings are down, but bail law changes needed to stop repeat offenders
NEW YORK -- Despite recurring gun violence in New York City, NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell says shootings are down and the city's crime-fighting strategies are working.
Sewell said one problem is that judges are not keeping criminals locked up. She wants state lawmakers to change the bail laws, CBS2's Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.
Mayor Eric Adams wasn't at the NYPD crime analysis press conference - unusual for the former NYPD captain who has taken an active roll in crafting the city's crime-fighting strategies.
Instead, Sewell was left to make the case that, despite the overwhelming bloodshed that has terrified New Yorkers, the department's mission to make the streets safer "is on track."
In the first six months since Adams took office, "Murders in New York City are down nearly 12 percent from this time last year. Shooting incidents are down more than 13 percent and shooting victims are down almost 11 percent. On top of that, the NYPD's gun arrests are at a 27-year high," Sewell said. "This is real, tangible progress in our fight against violence in this city."
The top brass used the same old refrain, "It's the judges who let the bad guys out," but they offered data to back it up.
"Twenty-five percent of our burglary arrests go on to commit a new felony and get arrested with that felony within 60 days. If you go back five years, it was seven percent," said Michael Lipetri, chief of crime control strategies.
"We do see a number of people that we are re-arresting for the same offenses over and over again," Sewell said.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said his solution to the bloodshed is to teach about gun violence in the schools.
"I'm calling on state leaders to mandate gun violence education to young people because so often it's young people who are committing these horrific mass shootings, young people who see the signs of stress of classmates in schools," Gonzalez said.
While Gonzalez supports New York's liberal bail laws, the police commissioner said lawmakers in Albany have to do more to make it more difficult for judges to let the bad guys walk the streets.
The NYPD said it has taken more than 3,700 guns off the street since the beginning of the year and made 2,410 gun arrests.
