ARE THE STATS TO BE BELIEVED?

NYPD deputy commissioner touts efforts to cause ‘steady decline’ in shootings 

 

By Sam Raskin

 

 

New York Post 

June 5, 2022

 

 

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller noted during an interview that police have to balance public perception of safety and what the actual crime stats are showing

 

NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller touted his department’s efforts that have recently spurred a “steady decline” in Big Apple shootings, declaring in a new interview that the nation’s largest police force is “firing on all cylinders.”

“We’re making really good progress on the gun crime, which is important,” Miller said on WABC’s “The Cats Roundtable” in a radio appearance out Sunday. “Our gun arrests are at a 28-year high. We are firing on all cylinders.”

Miller added that the city is “rounding seven weeks of steady decline in shootings.”

“That is not an accident; that is the result of a strategy,” he continued, explaining that the NYPD “flooded the Bronx with cops” after a spate of shootings in the borough and “intensified” presence of Strategic Response Team members there.

 

      Ha ha ... A decline in shootings ... Ha ha ha ... That's a good one ... Ha ha

According to figures released Friday, the NYPD recorded 118 shootings in May — down from 172 in 2021. But last month’s tally was significantly higher than the 61 shootings reported in May 2019.

Speaking to the radio show hosts, Miller, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, noted that police are tasked with balancing public perception of safety and what actual crime stats are showing.

“It’s hard, because there’s a difference … between how safe people are, and how safe they feel they are. And the things that make people feel less safe are not really necessarily violent crime,” he said. “It’s the confrontational person you will see on the street or in the subway; it’s the signs of disorder out on the street.

“And what we’re trying to do is attack that on all fronts.”

Over 2,500 more index crimes — including larcenies, robberies and car break-ins — were reported in May compared to May 2019, according to the new statistics.

Meanwhile, grand larcenies rose by more than 42% compared to last year, 4,116 vs. 2,897, while robberies were up 26.2% and burglaries increased by 28.4%.

Miller also took aim at progressive criminal justice reform, saying it’s created “limited consequences” for certain crimes that embolden repeat offenders — echoing sentiments expressed by NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell and Mayor Eric Adams.

 

An NYPD transit officer from the anti-terrorism unit patrols a subway station on May 24

 

“These are crimes that are largely not bail eligible now,” he said. “If somebody comes in and steals from the same store every day, and walks out and we catch him every day, the judge has no ability to hold him [even if] they know that crime is going to happen again.”

Under the 2019 bail-reform law, judges were barred from setting bail in misdemeanor and many non-violent felony cases. In April, Gov. Kath Hochul and state lawmakers rolled back some of those reforms in the state budget, allowing more repeat offenders to be held in jail pre-trial.

But Miller wants to see those changes go even further.

“These are the laws that were changed,” Miller said. “Those need to be adjusted again.”

 

Miller speaks to the media about ways to eradicate illegal guns from the streets on May 11

“Until the judges have the power to say this person is a hazard to their fellow citizens, we’re the only state in America where a judge can’t cite dangerousness as a reason to keep somebody in [custody],” he added. “We’re going to see those repeat offenders know that consequences can be very limited.”

Also during the interview that aired Sunday, Miller questioned a proposed bill that would limit the use of song lyrics as evidence in criminal cases.

The “Rap Music on Trial” legislation — introduced by state Sens. Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey and passed by the state Senate last month but not yet signed into law — would change state criminal procedure regulations in order to bar prosecutors from using artists’ “creative or artistic expression” against them unless they provide “clear and convincing proof” of a direct connection between the work and the alleged crime.

“I get the idea of protecting art,” Miller said, “but in a city where we have gangs who are using drill rap to call each other out and those things are actually resulting in shootings and murders and shooting kids, I’m just not sure that that is the most useful legislative approach to make that problem better.”