Mayor Eric Adams and interim NYC Police Commissioner Tom Donlon at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center; address the media | Photo by Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office
Making New York City a safer and more affordable city has always been the mission of our administration. Every day, we fight to ensure that New Yorkers can pursue their dreams without fear for their safety and with a better quality of life. I am proud that New York remains the safest big city in America, and we continue to get safer daily.
As a result of our administration’s successful public safety strategy, our streets and subways are safer. New York City has seen eight straight months of overall crime reduction across the five boroughs, realizing a significant 6.4 percent decrease in crime citywide for August compared to last year. Overall, crime continues to trend downward and is down year to date. Additionally, last month, we had the fewest shootings of any August since the NYPD started tracking crime through CompStat in 1994. Homicides are down double digits for the year and last month. Car theft is also down double digits. And burglaries are down, too.
Our public transit system is the lifeblood of our city, so keeping New Yorkers safe on the subway is key to ensuring that New York remains the safest big city in America. That is why we surged more than 1,000 officers in the subway system in February and introduced additional technology, including cameras and data-driven officer deployment. As a result, overall transit crime has been down for seven months, and robberies are at the lowest point in recorded history. These numbers don’t lie; our safety strategy is working.
We know that community input is critical to improving public safety and that every community has unique needs. That is why we are bringing partners from across the city to find innovative approaches to reducing crime and improving quality of life. Issues like illegal vending, retail theft, substance use, the mental health crisis, scaffolding, and unlicensed cannabis shops have no place on our streets. And our administration refuses to tolerate an atmosphere where anything goes.
“We know that community input is critical to improving public safety and that every community has unique needs. That is why we are bringing partners from across the city to find innovative approaches to reducing crime and improving quality of life.”
That is why we launched our “Community Link” initiative, which works with multiple agencies and community partners to make our city safer and more livable for all. Community Links are established across the city, including on 14th Street on the Lower East Side, 125th Street in Harlem, Central Park near 110th Street, and around Washington Square Park — all areas where unacceptable quality-of-life issues occur. This approach works with the community to bring tailored city services to their doorsteps.
Just last week, I was happy to convene members of the NYPD, the Department of Sanitation, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and others to launch “Operation Front Door,” a targeted operation focusing on quality-of-life issues in and around Times Square, the front door to the world. One night, we seized 36 illegally operating pedicabs, issued 45 summonses, and shut down six food trucks for various health and safety violations.
Times Square is the welcome mat to our city, a place where the hospitality, entertainment, tourism, and business industries meet. Millions of tourists continue to visit Times Square and are often targeted by illegal vendors and pedicabs. The unsafe and unregulated practices of illegal vendors and pedicabs put tourists’ safety at risk and undermine legitimate businesses trying to make a living. With Operation Front Door, we are taking decisive action to keep Times Square safe for New Yorkers, tourists, and businesses.
We came into office with the clear goal of making our city safer, more affordable, and more livable for all New Yorkers. We are making improvements that New Yorkers feel every day and ensuring that New York remains the safest big city in America.
