Eric Adams touts year-over-year drop in crime as reelection looms

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams announced a small annual drop in crime Monday, as he seeks to reaffirm his central promise of making the city safer ahead of a tough reelection bid.

Joined by his new police commissioner, Jessica Tisch — the fourth person to hold that job during his three-year tenure — the Democratic mayor announced the seven major index crimes tracked by the NYPD decreased by 2.9 percent from 2023 to last year.

Murders, robberies, burglaries, thefts and stolen automobiles are on the decline, coupled with an increase in arrests that brought major felony collars to a 26-year high — a trend that continues to solidify New York as the safest big city in the country. Nevertheless, rapes increased by nearly 19 percent, which the commissioner pegged in part to new reporting criteria, and felony assaults were up 5 percent compared to the year before.

“The average New Yorker would believe that they’re living in a city that is out of control — that is not the reality,” Adams said. “We know that we are doing a good job in fighting crime, as the numbers would show.”

Reducing crime has been a central component of the Adams brand. He pledged to make the city safer during his 2021 campaign, and he is staking his reelection bid on that same theme. Certain types of violent crime have fallen dramatically on his watch — shootings have decreased by roughly 42 percent and murders have dropped by nearly 23 percent. But he still faces several obstacles.

For starters, overall crime has actually gone up since Adams became mayor.

While index crimes in 2024 were the lowest of his three years in office, they were still roughly 20 percent higher than 2021, the year he campaigned on making the city safer.

In addition, New Yorkers as recently as October still ranked crime as their top concern despite improvements in several areas — a problem the mayor discussed in a recent interview with POLITICO where he pointed to problems caused by Albany and other elements of the criminal justice system beyond his control.

Adams and his police commissioner sought to encapsulate the split screen of crime statistics and crime perception with data covering the city’s subway system. Crime there fell by 5.4 percent between 2023 and 2024, putting infractions well below pre-pandemic levels.

“We had a billion people use our subway system. A billion,” Adams said. “With those billion, we dropped crime in the subway system by 5.4 percent.”

Perception has not followed, Adams argued, in part because of several high-profile crimes like the recent fatal burning of a passenger. To counter that narrative, Tisch said she is deploying 200 additional officers to platforms and trains.

“We know that 78 percent of transit crime occurs on trains and on platforms,” she said. “And that is quite obviously where our officers need to be.”

Both the commissioner and mayor said past legislative actions are keeping crime stubbornly high and hampering the NYPD’s efforts.

“We have far too many people who are making decisions without understanding the impact on the ground,” Adams said, referring to legislation that decriminalized public urination and sleeping in public places.

During Adams’ recent interview with POLITICO, he criticized former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for signing off on a suite of criminal justice legislation in 2019 that included eliminating cash bail for certain offenses. And on Monday, Tisch cited those laws as the reason for increased recidivism that is driving up felony assaults in particular.

“The key driving factor is the revolving door of our criminal justice system, created in large part by legislative changes that took effect in 2020,” Tisch said.

Representatives for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins did not immediately respond, but both legislative leaders have pushed back on assertions their handiwork has led to an increase in crime in New York City.

On Monday, Adams was careful to avoid invoking bail reform specifically, indicating only that he wanted to reduce recidivism. But when pressed, he did not offer specific legislative fixes to achieve that aim aside from pushing both reforms to the discovery process sought by New York City district attorneys and legislation that would clarify the city can forcibly detain homeless individuals suffering from severe mental illness.

“We presented a proposal for two years in a row, and we’re going to revisit this conversation when we return to Albany,” he said.

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