As the clock runs down on Eric Adams’ mayoralty, the city has fresh proof that Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is turning things around at the NYPD.
After years of shrinkage, the department’s on the verge of hiring new officers faster than old ones leave — and is gaining on crime, too.
Public safety still isn’t back to 2019 levels, before the pandemic and the state’s worst criminal-justice “reforms,” but key measures are positive.
The NYPD just posted incredible October stats: Citywide shootings plummeted to an all-time low for the month and for year-to-date; subway crime, too.
“We are not just beating the record, we are crushing it,’’ Tisch told new-minted officers at the latest swearing-in ceremony.
NYPD data showed 744 people shot in 596 incidents in the five boroughs between January and October — eclipsing the previous mark set in 2018 which saw 641 incidents and 768 shot.
So far, this year’s 18 murders have tied a 2018 all-time record — just over half the 35 in the same period last year.
Transit crime tied the previous record low — 154 felony offenses — for October, set in 2020 when ridership was near-zero.
The year’s so far had just one murder underground — the senseless beating death of Italian immigrant Nicola Tanzi in October; pray we’re close to the old days of no subway murders at all most years.
Meanwhile, Tisch on Monday swore in nearly 650 new police officers, the fourth class of the year, putting the NYPD on track for what she called the “highest hiring” in over four decades; the nearly 1,000 cadets who joined the force in August were the largest graduating class since 2016.
One cautionary note: The Police Benevolent Association reports that 1,642 cops have resigned or filed for retirement since April; the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty isn’t building faith in the future.
Indeed, while Adams’ new hiring plan would boost the NYPD’s headcount from its current just-below 34,000 to 40,000 by 2029, that’ll be all too easy for the next mayor to abandon.
We find it near-inconceivable that Mamdani could make it possible for Tisch to honorably stay on as commissioner; we’d be overjoyed if he proved us wrong — even though it’s the smartest possible move he could make if wants to win a second term.
Adams and Tisch have proved that the NYPD can get the city back to its accustomed safety levels.
New Yorkers will keep that in mind as a new team takes over at City Hall.
