Shootings Dropping To Pre-Pandemic Levels In Most Of NYC: Mayor

NEW YORK, NY — A surge in shootings brought on by the coronavirus crisis has been curbed in most parts of the city, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The mayor said Thursday that five of the New York City's eight patrol areas have either returned or are on their way toward pre-pandemic levels of gun violence given a citywide drop in shootings and increase in gun arrests.

The numbers are the latest milestone touted by city officials as a sign that their Safe Summer NYC initiative has worked in tamping down the pandemic crime spike.

"The tide is turning," de Blasio said. "The fact that there are major parts of New York City where we're now seeing the crime reality closer to 2019 than 2020 is a very powerful example of progress."

As of the end of August, the number of shootings in 2021 had reached 2019 levels in the Brooklyn South and Queens North patrol bureaus and were below 2019 levels in Staten Island, de Blasio said.

North Brooklyn, once a hotspot for the violence, and Manhattan South were nearing the pre-pandemic levels, according to the statistics. North Brooklyn at its peak saw more than 100 shootings in a single month last summer.

"This is a place historically that would have been considered one of the toughest parts of New York City," de Blasio said about North Brooklyn. "It's one of the places where we've seen the greatest progress."

The mayor noted that there is still work to be done in the Bronx, Northern Manhattan and Southern Queens, where the number of shootings are still near the gun violence seen in 2020.

The city plans to double down on anti-violence jobs programs and crisis management systems in those areas and keep the extra cops that had been sent during the summer through the fall, the mayor said.

The progress in individual areas of the city has contributed to a citywide drop in shootings of 19 percent so far this year and a 28 percent decrease in the number of murders, according to the mayor.

Gun arrests are up 23 percent in the city this year and the number of those cases that have been closed has doubled when compared to 2020, de Blasio said.