Bail Reform, Mayor Blamed For January Crime Surge In NYC

NEW YORK CITY — Crime last month jumped 17 percent from the year before and law enforcement leaders on both sides of the bail reform debate say Mayor Bill de Blasio is the problem.

Shootings jumped 29 percent from January 2019 as robbery, assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny rates all went up, according to NYPD crime statistics released Tuesday.

"That's cause for real concern," de Blasio said. "We take it seriously, we are focused on it."

But NYPD data also show a 20 percent drop in murder, a 24 percent drop in hate crimes and an 18 percent drop in rape.

"While we're seeing challenges, and there are challenges, we're also at the same time excited where we are in 2020, said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea,"exited to attack crime before it gets entrenched."

But Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch was less optimistic and characterized the findings as "a public safety emergency in New York City."

"Mayor de Blasio and many other elected officials have sent a single, clear message about their lack of support for law enforcement." Lynch said.

"These terrible statistics show that the criminals of New York have heard that message, loud and clear.”

In a statement, Lynch criticized New York State reforms that ban cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.

At the Tuesday press conference, Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri made special note that 31 percent of shootings involved someone out on parole or probation.

"We see a large increase of somebody being on parole or probation," Liperti said. "That's the largest number we've seen since we started recording this."

But the connection drawn between the crime uptick and bail reform was hotly contested by the New York Civil Liberties Union, whose leaders also pointed fingers at the mayor.

"Commissioner Shea and Mayor de Blasio should be more focused on ensuring our new bail law is being followed properly rather than manipulating statistics to fit their misguided narrative that giving low-income New Yorkers the same privileges as wealthier people is somehow linked to crime," said NYCLU policy counsel Nicole Triplett.

"No correlation could be or should be made to reforms that have been in place for only one month. We cannot let the distortions, falsehoods and purposeful fear-mongering that has spread over the past few weeks discredit these long-overdue changes."