Chair Feliz asks NYPD about historical crime decline factors

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony and again for joining today.

So I want to start today's conversation by, I guess, looking at the history of the issue.

So we've obviously made a lot of progress, and especially on the issue of murders and shootings historically.

I was looking at Comstat.

Back in the 90s, we would average about 2,200 murders per year in the city.

About 2,200 murders in 1990, 2,262 in 1990 to be specific, and our city was able to bring that down by about 80% eight years later, 629 versus 2,262.

This is something that we must obviously celebrate.

This year we've been able to drastically bring that down about 30 years later.

Bia, talk to us about those numbers.

What are policies that you think you would say have historically helped bring specifically the shootings and the murders down in the city?

All factors including economic factors, social factors, we know what happened during the pandemic, the coronavirus pandemic, the numbers ballooned, policing strategies, and anything else.

So we all start and then Inspector Howell will take over.

So obviously a very broad question, lots to say on that.

I think for starters,

You know, you talk about the Comstat era, and you think about what, you know, at the time was a tremendous innovation back in the early 90s.

Now it seems obvious.

But the concept of put the cops where the crime is when the crime is occurring.

And again, I think that seems obvious today.

It was not obvious then.

And the innovation of having a board that shows where the crime is and this idea of putting thumbtacks on the board.

Okay, here's where the crime is.

Here's where we're going to put the cops.

You know, that idea, that concept, through CompStat and otherwise, I think has dramatically, had a dramatic effect when it comes to murders and shootings and shooting victims, right?

Because we've gotten better and better at this.

So again, it started back in the day as Jack Maple working on a hard copy board with thumbtacks, and we've been able to refine that more and more and more.

Precision, precision, precision.

Where precisely is the crime occurring?

Precisely what crimes?

Precisely when?

Are we putting cops where they need to be when they need to be?

Holding commanders accountable to make sure they are doing that.

And particularly when it comes to...

Gun violence, often crew related, sometimes drug related, but these are things that are going to be, you know, they're going to be, oh, this is happening in a particular area, a particular crew beef, a particular drug beef.

If we put the cops in the right place at the right time,

we can actually prevent gun violence.

And you've seen tremendous success with that.

Just a few other things before I turn it over to Inspector Hout.

I think one thing that we've done a tremendous amount of work on are the crew takedowns, right?

A relatively small number of people in the city drive gun violence.

And so you want to have a really targeted approach, okay, identifying those individuals who are driving the gun violence, devoting resources, working with our DA partners to do successful cases against those individuals.

I mean, getting guns off the street, obviously incredibly important.

Get guns off the street.

Getting illegal guns off the street is going to mean fewer shootings.

That is certainly just one part of the answer, but I'll turn it over to Inspector Hebb.