The New York City Council took a closer look at recent NYPD crime statistics, as numbers show post-pandemic murders and shootings are down citywide — but felony assaults have consistently increased.
Top police commanders within the department testified Wednesday about how the record lows this year in multiple major crime categories were achieved.
“Our success is not by accident,” said William Haut, the NYPD’s inspector for crime control strategies.
For 2026, murders are down 24% year to date. Through the end of August, shootings were down more than 9% from 2025 — reaching the lowest number of shootings since the early 1990s, according to police.
“Put the cops where the crime is, when the crime is occurring,” said NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber.
But it’s not all good news. Stats also show an uptick in felony assaults for the year, peaking in August. More than half of those allegedly involved domestic violence or assaults against police or other public workers.
Police commanders said they have made arrests in 90% of the cases, and of those arrested, 20% had at least two prior arrests.
“This year, we have had 263 individuals that have been arrested three or more times for felony assault, and that’s up 205% compared to 2018,” said Haut.
“You can imagine the frustration. We go and arrest someone for felony assault, they’re back out, and they do it again a second time, they do it a third time,” said Gerber. “It is frustrating, obviously. We are one piece of the criminal justice system…It is a problem.”
Some more progressive councilmembers questioned whether repeatedly arresting people does anything to actually solve the root causes of why people reoffend.
“My question is whether it solves the problem of the recidivist act. And so I think the answer is no. So now my next question is: What are the underlying factors of instability that can be causing multiple bouts of assault, for example?” asked Councilmember Tiffany Caban.
Gerber said there are “underlying social issues that go far beyond anything the NYPD can deal with” that may contribute to the problem, listing disparities in education and finance as examples.
Councilmembers also posed several questions regarding concerns about officers either declining to take crime reports or potentially downgrading charges. The police commanders who testified Wednesday said that does happen and officers sometimes make mistakes, but added it is an issue that the department audits and takes seriously.
