Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Public Safety-Related Announcement With NYPD Police Commissioner Tisch

April 3, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much. Good morning. We're going to go over the crime stats and then after the police commissioner and the team is going to go continue to keep our city safe and I'll answer a few off topics. It's been sort of a quiet few days in the city, so I'll answer those [questions]. 

Really, really pleased with the men and women of the New York City Police Department, what they have been doing dealing with public safety in the city and their focus, you know my code is focus no distractions and we grind and that's what we've been doing and you heard me say it over and over again. I've coined the phrase the prerequisite to our prosperity is public safety injustice. We have to be safe. 

Safety is the economic stimulus package that you build an entire city on and that is why you're seeing because the city continues to be the safest big city in America you're seeing our jobs return [and] our businesses are returned. When you go out at night, it's difficult to get a restaurant reservation my restaurant owners are sharing with me because of just the buzz and excitement in the city in the air and anyone who states that this city's in the chaos they just don't know the city and they [should] try walking the city and seeing how great the city is doing. 

We've focused on this day one and we will continue, and when you look at 2025 our first quarter crime data reflects our resounding success from what we have accomplished. The commissioner is going to go through a lot of these numbers but I want to just highlight a few of them including shattering crime records. The first three months of the year [we] saw the lowest number of shootings in recorded history. Let that settle in for a moment. The lowest number of recorded shootings in recorded history. 

Since the start of modern crime tracking, there has never been fewer [shootings] in the first quarter of the year. But it's more than that and we'll continue to look at where our success lies. It's not just shootings. New York City also saw the second fewest number of murders in recorded history. The second fewest numbers of murders in recorded history. 

Transit crime has gone down by double digits in the first quarter for all boroughs. Thanks to the surge of police in the transit system, when we started out with the subway safety plan, 1,000 police officers and Commissioner Tisch brought in the program of cops riding on the subways. It has made a major impact. And it's thanks to that presence, the omnipresence that we talked about, that we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing, but also retail theft. We had a retail theft summit yesterday. And we are speaking with our retail establishments. 

We're seeing and witnessing an 8 percent drop year to date. And so when I go over the numbers this quarter, we have a 34.4 percent decline in murder, 23 percent decrease in shooting, and six of the seven major crime categories decreased in March, including murder, which was down 51 percent and robbery by 19 percent and I'm sure the commissioner is going to go over some of the additional numbers. And we are really on track of going after those guns. 

Those who criticize our CRT teams, our gun initiative teams, we removed close to 21,000 illegal guns off our street. That is the correlation between taking the gun out of the hands of the bad guy, not allowing them to do the shooting, and keeping our city safe. But I think it's so important to point out that overall crime also, in double digits, [has] dropped in public housing as well, something that has always been a challenge. 

And today's drop is nothing new, and I know we have them sitting in the audience, But just for a moment, guys, stand up, both of you. Deputy Mayor Daughtry, chief of [department]. Listen, these guys have worked hard as hell for this city. And I cannot thank you enough, you have saved lives. We've seen month after month for six months, in over five quarters, we have witnessed a drop in crime. They’re out there all night doing the job, doing the work, representative of the men and women who wear the uniform. It didn't matter who was the mayor, didn't matter who's the commissioner, didn't matter who's the president. 

These men and women are out there every day staying consistent to public safety and you represent that. And I want to thank both of you for the job that you've been doing and supporting [this] administration and this Police Department. New York City remains the safest big city in America, [by far] the numbers prove that. 

This is what we said over and over again, so I want to thank the commissioner for continuing the success that we started and we're seeing it continue and bringing a new brand with zone policing. But [six] straight months of crime reduction is due to the tireless work of the men and women who put that blue uniform on every day and protect the people of this city. This is how you raise healthy children and families in a safe environment in the city. Job well done for the entire team. Now I want to turn it over to the Police Commissioner of the City of New York, Commissioner Tisch. Thank you, sir.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Thank you, sir. Good morning. As we review the crime data for the first quarter of 2025, it is immediately clear. The crime and violence reductions we're seeing right now in New York City are historic. In the first quarter of this year, our city hit major public safety milestones and the credit, as the mayor said, absolutely belongs to the men and women of the NYPD. They have the full support of our great mayor, Eric Adams, who has rightfully made public safety his first priority from day one. And they have millions of grateful New Yorkers who respect and appreciate their noble work. That work, to put it simply, has been extraordinary. 

For the first three months of this year, overall, major crime is down 11 percent citywide, and it's down in every borough, led by Brooklyn and Queens at more than 15 percent, Staten Island at 14 percent, Manhattan at nearly 9 percent, and the Bronx now down more than 4 percent. Major crime is also down more than 18 percent in transit and more than 11 percent in housing. We have double-digit crime reductions in our patrol precincts, in our subways, and in our housing developments. And we have made historic progress in our fight against gun violence. 

From his first day in office, Mayor Adams made it clear that ridding our city of illegal guns and holding the criminals who use them accountable would be the central focus of the public safety agenda. Under the mayor's leadership, the NYPD has taken more than 21,000 firearms off our streets over the past three years, including more than a thousand illegal guns seized in 2025. Our cops' work is dangerous, it's daring, and it is making a real difference. 

As a result, I am proud to report January, February, and March saw the lowest number of shooting incidents of any quarter in recorded history. Shootings are down in every borough, and they were down 23 percent compared to last year. Let me be clear. It's not just the best first quarter ever for shootings, it is the best quarter ever. This is huge. This is lives saved. 

Breaking down our major crime categories, we'll start with murder. In the first quarter, citywide murders are down more than 34 percent, and this is the second lowest quarter in recorded history. There have been zero murders in our subways this quarter, the first time that that has happened since 2018. And murders in housing are down more than 36 percent. 

And in the month of March, citywide murders declined by more than 51 percent, making it the lowest March on record. Citywide robbery, an index crime that has been stubbornly on the rise in recent years, is now down nearly 23 percent for the quarter, with double-digit declines in all five boroughs. And this quarter saw a 14 percent drop in grand larcenies, also with declines in every geographic borough. Although auto theft, or GLA, in New York City is down 12 percent in the first quarter, we saw this crime category rise a bit in March, and we know why. Honda thefts are up 31 percent for the quarter, and 29 percent of all vehicles stolen in New York City in the last three months were Hondas. 

This issue is especially prevalent in the Bronx, where more vehicles are stolen than in any other borough. It turns out that thieves are able to clone Honda key fobs, and they can do it quickly and repeatedly. We've been sounding the alarm on this for over a year, and we continue to urge Honda, for their customers' sake, to fix this vulnerability now. Citywide burglaries are down more than 4 percent in the first quarter, with an 11 percent reduction in housing. We see an increase for the quarter in Staten Island, with a smaller uptick in parts of Queens, while Brooklyn is driving the overall reduction in burglaries, with a decrease of more than 13 percent. 

As you can see, we have made tremendous progress over the past three months, but rape was the one index category that was up for the first quarter, increasing by 21 percent. Among the reasons for this are, first, in September 2024, there were changes to the law that rightfully redefined and broadened what constitutes rape in New York State. Second, these crimes have been under-reported for years. In Spring of 2024, NYPD SVU detectives started taking reports of sexual assault at the city's five borough-based family justice centers, where survivors were already receiving social and legal services in a safe place. This has helped more survivors to come forward and seek justice. 

Additionally, in partnership with the Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, the NYPD is working to eliminate the stigma of sexual violence, inform survivors of their rights, and promote free and confidential resources citywide. We encourage all victims of sexual assault to come forward and to make their voices heard, and when they do, New York City, under Mayor Adams, is committed to providing them the resources and the support that they need to heal.

In the past three months, the women and men of the NYPD have made remarkable gains in our fight against crime and violence citywide, and a major reason why is our violence reduction zones. These tailored, hyper-local daily deployments focus on the true drivers of crime in our neighborhoods and in our city's most violent areas. This scalpel approach to policing is increasing public safety across all five boroughs. 

Major crime in our violence reduction zones, which you've heard me and the mayor speak so much about is down 25 percent overall, with a 71 percent decline in murder and a 48 percent drop in shootings. These crime reductions within our 42 deployment zones are outpacing the city overall, with massive reductions in addition to murders and shootings, in robbery, in felony assault, in burglary, and in grand larceny. This work makes our neighborhoods and the people who live and work in them safer. 

In our Roosevelt Avenue zone, crime is down 37 percent. On 125th Street in northern Manhattan, it's down 38 percent. And in Downtown Flushing, major crime is down 46 percent. And in both our East New York and our Melrose zones, crime is down by more than 50 percent, with zero shootings so far this year. While our zones are reducing crime and violence in our precincts, we're also making tremendous progress on our subways. 

Our Transit Safety Plan, developed and implemented in close collaboration with Mayor Adams, put thousands of uniformed officers throughout the entire system, 24/7. We focused our deployments on the trains and platforms where we know that 78 percent of the subway crime actually happens. And with the governor's support, we put two officers on every overnight train. When we announced this plan alongside the mayor back in January, we promised real results, and boy did we get them. 

For the first three months of 2025, major crime in our subways is down more than 18 percent to its second lowest level since record-keeping began for transit crime 27 years ago. In the first quarter, our focused and flexible deployments resulted in a 67 percent decline in subway shootings, a 25 percent drop in subway robberies, and a 23 percent reduction in subway grand larcenies across the entire system. This deployment plan represents a meaningful, systemic shift in how we approach policing in our subways, and it's more than just uniformed police presence. At roll calls, officers are briefed on wanted suspects and crime trends. They are taking a targeted approach. And also importantly, they are enforcing the transit system's rules. 

Over the past 10 years, the prohibitions against taking up multiple seats, laying out, [stretching], smoking, drinking alcohol, they weren't consistently enforced. This increased the perception of an unsafe system and it needed to change. So we piloted that change in Queens in January, and we expanded into the borough of Brooklyn last month. Our cops will not simply walk by someone who is violating the law and disrupting other passengers. They will correct the condition. This is not a dragnet. This is not harassment. This is about restoring a sense of safety and order in the system. 

It is also a response to New Yorkers telling us that unchecked disorder makes them feel less safe on the train. And the truth is this approach allows the NYPD to address the random acts of violence that we're seeing in the subways. Since the refocused enforcement began, NYPD officers are finding hundreds of people being sought for other crimes that they had committed in the past. People who were stopped for violating a transit rule and then found to have an open active warrant. Of those arrested, 31 percent were convicted felons and all combined they had more than 16,000 priors, which is an average of 21 prior arrests per person.

Case in point, on February 11th officers from Transit District 34 stopped [Carlos Catedral] for smoking an e-cigarette on the northbound R line platform inside the 86th street station in Brooklyn. Upon further investigation, the officers realized that he was wanted for robbing and assaulting a 17-year-old victim at knife point on the same platform just the day before. 

And then there's Hector Milan, who was stopped on March 14th for being outstretched at the Howard Beach JFK subway station in Queens. After the stop, officers discovered that Milan was wanted for a previous burglary in Manhattan from January, and he was arrested. And incidentally, since he was released Without bail on that charge, he is now wanted in connection with another burglary that occurred about two weeks ago. 

We are not correcting conditions in transit. We are not only correcting conditions in transit. We are taking violent, wanted criminals off of our streets. But we are also matching our enforcement with services, including the offer of shelter for those who need it. Our subway trains and platforms are not homeless shelters. They are not psychiatric hospitals and as a city, we have a moral duty to provide help to people who need them. The NYPD needs strong partners in this and we stand with Mayor Adams and the governor in support of their legislative efforts to proactively address severe mental illness in our subways and elsewhere. 

The public safety gains that we've detailed this morning are truly remarkable, but every New Yorker should know that they could be even better. We are still up above 2018 crime levels, and there are several reasons why. Most notably, 2018 was the last full year before drastic changes to our state's criminal justice system took effect. These changes had wide ranging consequences. And over the past seven years, one thing has become very clear. New York City does not have a surging crime problem, but we do have a surging recidivism problem. 

Looking at just the first quarter, 39 percent of the people arrested this quarter were arrested at least twice in the same three-month period. That's a 46 percent increase in recidivism from 2018. And 21 percent of the people arrested this quarter were arrested three or more times in the same period. That's an 85 percent increase from 2018. These recidivism rates are out of control. The revolving door of the criminal justice system is spinning faster than ever, and everyday New Yorkers are suffering as a result. 

We have been very clear on what steps we must take to address this, and it starts with discovery. Over the past few months, we've built a strong coalition for sensible, substantive change to our discovery law. Our mayor, our governor, all five of our district attorneys, many of our federal, state, and local representatives, and the New Yorkers we serve, we all agree, the time to act is now. Our laws cannot continue to allow cases to be dismissed en masse based on technicalities that would have absolutely no bearing on the ultimate outcome. This is not a retreat from the spirit of the criminal justice reforms of 2019.

It is a necessary closing of dangerous, unforeseen loopholes. In a moment, our Chief of Crime Control Strategies, Michael LiPetri, will provide some further analysis of the data. But before that, I just want to thank Mayor Adams for the trust, sir, that you placed in me and the brave men and women of the NYPD. When people called to defund the police, you defended them. It is truly the honor of my lifetime to work for you as the city's police commissioner and to have the opportunity to tell the incredible stories of the bravery of the women and men of the NYPD. All the work that we've talked about this morning is their work, and it is the direct result of their unwavering dedication to the people they serve. 

Chief Michael LiPetri, Crime Control Strategies, Police Department: Thank you, commissioner. As the commissioner and the mayor said, it's the men and women of the NYPD out there every night, every day, every afternoon, doing the tough work. Murder arrests, 72 percent of murders this year have an arrest or somebody wanted for that murder. 52 percent of the shooting incidents in New York City have an arrest or somebody wanted for it. 60 percent of New York City robberies have an arrest or somebody wanted for it. 

An astounding 82 percent of felony assault victims, 82 percent of somebody who was victimized for an assault have an arrest or somebody wanted for it. 50 percent of our shoplifting arrests, 50 percent of our shoplifting complaints, have an arrest. Just a few years ago, it was 30 percent, that's precision. Our shots fired, the NYPD treats shots fired just as a shooting incident. Could be anybody just walking across the street. 30 percent of our shots fired this year have an arrest. Think about that. A detective, patrol officer goes to a scene, all they have is shell casings on the floor. We're making 30 percent of those shots fired arrests. 

The commissioner and the mayor talked about substantial robbery decreases this year. I'd like to talk about some of the categories that are within those robberies. Bodega robberies, 65 percent decrease in bodega robberies for the first quarter, 47 percent decrease in our delivery robberies, and 31 percent decrease in our cell phone robberies. 

Our felony assaults, 12 percent decrease in stabbings and slashings, a 5 percent decrease in members of the service. And for unprovoked, we're flat from last year, felony assaults. Let's talk about shoplifting. We have a 26 percent decrease in felony shoplifting this year. A 26 percent decrease. 90 percent of our shoplifting complaints are for petty larceny. You want to know why? Because we encourage, we encourage stores, mom and pop stores, larger corporations to report that crime, no matter how minor it is. 

When we look at shoplifting, the commissioner talked about it, recidivism. 30 percent of all our shoplifting arrests are attributed to approximately 350 people. Those 350 people have over 2,300 shoplifting arrests this year. And guess what? They've been arrested 14,000 times. 14,000 times. And I'm going to tell you that 43 percent of them are a convicted felons. Do the math. 14,000 arrests, only 43 are convicted felons. That doesn't seem right to me and I'm sure it doesn't seem right to all of you. That should be double. 

Let's talk about youth crime, but really it's about the victims. The under the age of 18 victims. Shootings, this year, we have a 133 percent increase in juvenile victims compared to 2018. Our perpetrators of shootings, under the age of 18, we have an increase of 112 percent from 2018. Gun arrests, 94 percent increase in gun arrests of individuals under the age of 18 compared to 2018. And you know what that tells us? I'm going to tell you what it tells us. If you get arrested for a gun and you're under the age of 18, within two years of that gun arrest, 25 percent of that population will be involved in a shooting. Prior to 2018, it was less than seven. 

The commissioner talked about the concept of officers in zones across many precincts. I'd like to talk a little deeper about that. When you look at the South Bronx, where we have invested tons of patrol officers, we've asked our detectives to go into those zones. We've increased our technology there, our intelligence sharing, our intelligence sharing within, not just within New York City, within the bordering Westchester counties. If you look at the 44, the 46, and the 52, they are down 66 percent in shooting incidents this year and 72 percent in victims. 

If you want to add the 73 and the 75, four out of those five commands that I just discussed have historically been in the top five shootings in New York City. Unacceptable. You combine those five commands where we put our most resources, we're down 54 percent in shooting incidents, we're down 52 percent in shooting victims, and we're down 58 percent in murders. 

An example, the 174, 175, and Eastbourne Avenue, a known violent crew area. That borders the 44 [and] 46. That zone is continuous. It's one zone that encompasses a very stubborn crew area. Guess what? Friday night, our officers were out there, actually our citywide officers were out there, and arrested two individuals, gang members, right on the border with guns. That's precision, and that's what's helping drive down violent crime in New York City and overall crime in New York City. 

But this is not done without the men and women out there every day under very tough conditions doing the job that we asked them to do. So I want to say thank you to them, and I want to say thank you to all the commanders and everybody in the NYPD, thank you.

Mayor Adams: Just the front row, please stand up for a moment because we have to really acknowledge the chief of Patrol, chief of Detectives, executive, chief of Transit, you know, these men, they're representatives of how we are doing this and just really want to thank you guys and ladies for what you're doing. Rebecca, how you're keeping the intel flowing. We close these cases because of the detectives. I don't know how many times we are at crime scenes, and we turn around and find the individuals involved. Well done. 

What you're doing over in community affairs, preventing the crime, Deputy Commissioner Stewart. So I just want to personally tell you, thank you. The hardest job in America is working for Eric Adams, you know, and you guys do it every day. And New Yorkers need to know, you save lives. You save lives. And I just want to personally, on behalf of the commissioner, just personally tell you thank you for the job you've done. 

All right, we're going to do some on-topics before we have some fun with off-topics.

Question: Very quickly, [inaudible] you had mentioned the closing out of cases with either arrest or people wanted for arrests is that up over previous years and the question is is overtime affecting the closing of cases with the detectives the clamp down on overtime?

Chief LiPetri: So as far as the murder and shooting clearance it's basically been that for the past few years. As far as our robbery, our felony assaults percentage, that is up from prior years. It's the highest that I've seen since being the chief of Crime Control Strategies.

Police Commissioner Tisch: And I guess that answer sort of obviates the next question, but I will say that for our detectives specifically, the overtime management plan that we put in place was actually designed to allow them to spend more time working on their cases, and less time off at other details.

Mayor Adams: And I'm going to say this again, I want to be extremely clear on this, because we hear this, I remember from days of state senate, days of borough president. Everybody is talking about overtime, overtime, overtime. The commissioner has put in place a clear overtime management system. She's clear on that. But we're not going to cut pennies to save lives. 

I don't want to hear those defund the police characters tell us how much are we spending. Whatever we need to spend to save the lives of New Yorkers and to keep the city safe, we're going to spend it. That is period. And so we're not going to be defensive about people saying, well, overtime is up. Yeah, overtime is up because we have 3,000 protesters in this city. Yes, we got to take guns off the street. We're not apologizing for spending money to save New Yorkers. We're going to be smart about it. We're not going to allow abuse, but we're going to use whatever resources we need to keep New Yorkers safe. 

Question: Speaking of the youth stats, that sounds like it's the most concerning thing here. Specifically in Brooklyn, Coney Island, Stillwell Avenue station, we've seen a series of incidents with teens, stabbings, threatening with machetes, things like that. So what are you doing specifically to stop this surge in violence among teens?

Chief LiPetri: Well, it's obviously, it's multi-pronged. I mean, look, when it comes to violent crime, when it comes to youth carrying firearms, We want a prosecution. When it comes to the low-level offenses, when it comes to the youth that, you know, is right on the fringe of maybe going onto the wrong side, that's about outreach. That's about outreach. And we have multiple bureaus within the department that is very good in outreach. But what we're seeing substantially is an uptick in youth being arrested for violent crimes anywhere in the past since Raise the Age?

Mayor Adams: Connected to that, going back to the years we talked about 2018, and I think the commissioner alluded to it as well, of legislative changes. Raise the Age. During the 70s we motivated children to carry drugs for drug dealers because if they were arrested they would not get to receive a hard penalty. When we did Raised the Age, we did not deal with the unintended consequences of bad people or having these young people carry guns. 

As Chief Lipetri just shared, not only are we seeing an arrest increase of those young people, but you know what? Victims. Victims. And so when you make these legislative changes, you know, back previous administrations, you know, those who are saying our city is dealing with crime problems, we are fixing the problems that they created with legislative changes. Raising the age has a clear impact on the number of young people who are the victims of crimes and those who are participating in crime. It's a clear correlation. How's it going? 

Question: First was about the stranger attacks. I think you mentioned that they were flat, but I was hoping you could go into just a few more details, some hard numbers about that and just how many of them are they being sparked by emotionally disturbed people or anything like that if you're seeing any trends.

And, also about youths involved in gun violence both the ones that are shooting and the ones that are being shot. Can you provide some whole numbers on that and how does that compare historically? I know you mentioned it was up 133 percent but is that the most we've ever seen and is this a situation where the very kids that are actually becoming victims are sometimes the ones that are pulling the trigger later and vice versa? What more are you seeing from that?

Chief LiPetri: So I'm going to say this. For the first month and a half of 2025, 20 percent, think about this, of all shooting victims in New York City were under the age of 18. It wasn't even close, it was 5 percent, 6 percent prior to Raise the Age 

Now as we stand here today, it's 17 percent, unacceptable, 17 percent of all our shooting victims for the first quarter under the age of 18. How about perpetrators? 18 percent of our shooting perpetrators, either arrested or wanted, 18 percent are under the age of 18. Prior to 2018, 78 percent. Think about that. Look, the NYPD is not against Raise the Age, especially when it comes to the age. Everything else obviously isn't working. The only thing that we agree with is that 16 and 17-year-olds should be treated as juveniles, but not everything else that was built into that bill. 

And so I'll just touch on the felony assaults, the unprovoked, it's one too many, right? When you look at the raw number, it's approximately 37 victims this year as far as felony assaults. Last year we were approximately at 35, that's why I obviously stated that it was flat. What we're really keeping our eye on, well we're keeping our eye on everything, but we also look at misdemeanors. We look, you know, we drill down to whether it be a petty larceny, whether it be a misdemeanor assault, whether it be harassment in transit, whatever it might be, we do not police by seven majors and things of that nature. That's not how we police. We police when it comes to public safety, public safety, and we always will. 

Question: [Inaudible].

Chief LiPetri: So yes, there is an element to it. We do know that the data fluctuates, but it's usually about 50 percent have had some contact with the NYPD as being, you know, mentally ill. Yes.

Mayor Adams: Good, good, good. Great question. Great question. That's why we're up in Albany fighting for the involuntary removals. You know, nothing makes it more challenging for a police officer, walking down a platform, you see someone unkept, soiled clothing, clearly can't take care of himself. And that police officer can't take the action that's needed because, you know, these laws are just not addressing that. 

And what we're fighting for with involuntary removal, we need to address it. We need to be able to continue the good work we have been doing on saying if this person needs help, we need to give them the help. There's nothing humane about allowing that person to stay in the system. And so, the numbers are clear. Fifty percent random acts of violence, I think nothing shatters the confidence of New Yorkers more than out of nowhere someone striking you, punching you, pushing you to the subway track. 
You know, those random acts of violence are real. And we see them. When I'm in the subway system, and some of you you have been on the subway system with us, you are trying to address the issue of those who are dealing with severe mental health issues in our subway system, having the real power and authority of involuntary removal will be extremely, extremely helpful. And whomever is against involuntary removal is just not in touch with reality. They are trying to romanticize this problem. Okay, thank you. Thank you, thank you. Good job, well done. 

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