NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City recorded one of the safest Augusts on record this year, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD officials.
At his morning press conference Tuesday, the mayor told reporters that when compared to August 2020, there was a significant drop in violent crimes during August of this year.
Statistics from the NYPD showed murder decreased by 8.6% year over year, while shooting incidents decreased by 30.7%. Overall crime in the city also dropped 5.4% in August.
“We were faced with a great unknown this summer, after the horror of last year — everything that happened in the city — we didn’t know what this summer would be like,” de Blasio said. “But, we knew the people of this city would do everything in their power, and community organizations stepped forward, violence interrupters stepped forward, and then, at the same time, the men and women of the NYPD outdid themselves.”
The NYPD noted that the decrease in overall crime throughout the five boroughs was mostly driven by a 27.2% decrease in burglaries and a 10.9% decrease in robberies.
In August 2021, grand theft auto incidents also dropped by 5% and felony assaults were down by 3.7%.
However, not all crime saw a decrease during the last month of summer.
Grand larceny incidents increased by 4.1% year over year, while rapes increased by nearly 9%. The NYPD also added that rapes continue to be widely underreported in New York City.
Meanwhile, crimes on New York City buses and subways climbed by 30.4% in August 2021, with a total of 146 incidents.
The NYPD stressed that it is committed to curbing violence throughout the city, especially gun violence.
“Our NYPD officers have made consistent progress in curtailing gun violence, anchored by the department’s continuing to build strong long-term cases against those who carry out violence using firearms. For the month of August, the number of shootings declined in every borough of the city except Staten Island, where the number remained constant (2 v. 2), compared to the previous year,” the department said in a statement.
The NYPD made 343 gun arrests in August 2021, but officials said there is still “more work to do.”
“Every day, our police department, and our hardworking men and women who make it up, are continuing to develop better ways to police, encouraging better community relations and ensuring community safety for all,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said. “Our city’s common future depends on this unwavering commitment to safety, fairness, intelligence-driven policing, targeted deployments, and state-of-the-art training — all with the continuing aim of reducing the damaging impact of criminality and violence in New Yorkers’ lives.”
Statistics showed August 2021 had the lowest crime tally for the first eight months of any calendar year since the department started keeping track nearly three decades ago.