NYC Crime Spike Sees Hate Crime, Murder And Robbery Rise

NEW YORK CITY — Crime spiked in New York City last month with every major category seeing an increase in cases, NYPD data show.

The New York City crime index spiked about 59 percent in February 2022 with 9,138 new cases, as compared to just 5759 in February 2021, the NYPD announced Thursday evening.

The NYPD recorded a 56 percent increase in robberies with 1,276 cases, a 79 percent increase in grand larcenies with 3,762 cases, and grand larceny auto more than doubled from 529 in 2021 to 1,083 in 2022.

There were 32 murders reported in February, up three from the count in 2021, data show.

Citywide shootings decreasing by 1.3 percent, making it the exception to an otherwise blanket increase, data show.

Hate crime nearly tripled last February with 107 reported in 2022 as compared to 37 in the same month last year.

Crimes against Jewish people make up half of those cases and crime against Asian people spiked 125 percent, data show.

Rape reports jumped from 99 in February 2021 to 134 in February 2022, the highest case count in the past six years. But only 89 of those cases occurred in 2022, the data show.

February's surge followed a month that also saw major crimes spike by more than 38 percent, as compared to the January before.

"The men and women of the New York City Police Department are proactively addressing the deep-rooted causes of criminal behavior,” said Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell. “The NYPD will never relent."