NYC Violent Crime Drops Right Before Bail Reform Rollback: Data

NEW YORK CITY — Murders and shootings in New York City dropped in April — the same month that Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers' budget talks stalled in part over proposed bail reform changes to combat violent crime in the city.

Shooting incidents and homicides last month fell 31.4 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively, compared to April 2022, according to NYPD crime statistics released Wednesday.

Police unveiled the monthly crime numbers minutes after Hochul signed public safety measures from the state's just-passed $229 billion budget into law that included advocates decried as a bail reform rollback.

Hochul cast the bail reform change as a necessary tweak that keeps the landmark law's main goal — keeping people out of jail for extended periods of time on minor offenses — intact.

"But I believe that judges should have the authority to set bail and detain dangerous defendants. Full stop," she said.

Advocates, however, argue the change is anything but minor.

In a statement, New York City Democratic Socialists of America denounced the "racist repeal" of bail reform.

"Instead of raising the minimum wage to genuinely meet this crisis, Hochul chose to further criminalize poverty—to throw more Black and brown people in jail pre-trial by removing the least restrictive standard and expanding the scope of cash bail," their statement reads.

The NYPD's recent crime statistics are arguably a mixed bag for both sides.

While murders and shootings continued their months-long declines, overall crime ticked up 3.8 percent, the data shows.

The overall increase was driven by a 36.6 percent rise in grand larceny involving automobiles, as well as a 7.1 percent increase in felony assaults, according to the data.

Rape also went up 9.3 percent in April compared to the same month last year, the data shows.

But the statistics also showed that rape, in addition to murder and several other major crimes, is down overall so far this year.

Mayor Eric Adams, who pushed Hochul and lawmakers to tweak bail laws, argued they needed to address "recidivism" that he claimed is behind many homicides, felony assaults and domestic violence incidents.

"It's not right for dangerous people to stay on our streets longer, but it's also not right for others to languish behind bars as the criminal justice process drags on," he said.