Gerber on GLA factors, key fob technology, and moped theft classification

Right, absolutely.

And I took a hard look at all the numbers, and one thing that I saw was that generally crime doesn't drastically decrease from a year to the next.

Generally, it's progressive, decreases year after year.

So that's something that I kind of noticed for almost every crime.

Obviously, there's a few exceptions, but that's been the general trend.

But I guess the big question is, hoping to compare today's numbers to the numbers from pre-COVID, 2019, when we were pretty safe on that specific issue.

So what would you say has led to that increase?

The numbers have more than doubled, right?

Yes, they have.

3,600 versus 8,500.

Yes.

What are factors that you would say have played a role in that drastic increase?

So, Chair, I think that's a hard question for us to answer, right?

It goes to a variety of considerations that are actually sort of beyond the PD's purview, right?

So we can...

can identify the crime trends, and we try to articulate that here today and otherwise, and respond to that, right?

But in terms of sort of like, what are the underlying causes, for example, of people engaging in felony assaults?

Right?

That's a very tough question, maybe for anyone to answer.

It's certainly a tough question, you know, for us to answer.

To the extent, you know, we see recidivism, again, in the felony assault space, that certainly is a serious consideration.

And again, we're doing our part, but there's a limit to what we can do.

I think on the GLA space, I think one thing, you saw a real spike in GLAs coming out of the pandemic, a tremendous spike.

For the past several years, we've seen decreases, which is really welcome news.

You know, we've been working a lot with the DAs on these GLA cases.

It's a very important issue because, you know, these GLAs on a one-off basis, you think about it, oh, it's a property crime.

Of course, these crimes can have a dramatic impact on somebody's life, right?

You have your car stolen, all of a sudden you can't get to work, you can't take your kids to school.

So we work a lot with the DA's offices, you know, to give them the best possible case that we can, to give them pattern cases when we can.

The other issue I just want to flag, a very particular change when it comes to GLAs.

I think going to your question, we saw and have seen with a number of car types or models problems that make it easier for someone to steal the car, right?

So certain types of key fobs, I couldn't explain the technology to you, but certain types of key fobs,

have made it easier for criminals to, through certain technology, steal those cars and steal them very quickly.

I think that actually contributed to a major spike, or that's certainly one of the causes.

I should say, we've actually worked a lot with some of the car manufacturers on this very issue.

We've had meetings essentially with manufacturers to say, look, hey, there's an issue here.

You know, you designed your car in this way.

This makes it easier for people to steal the car.

That's bad for everybody.

And I think we've made some progress on that.

I think that actually is an important consideration here.

And by grand larceny involving a vehicle, does that mean specifically stealing a vehicle, or does that include also the stealing of vehicle parts?

And also, does that include the stealing of a moped?

Is that considered a vehicle for these purposes?

So a two-wheel device, if it's over a certain amount, would be considered a grand larceny auto.

The parts would be considered a grand larceny.

Do you have a breakdown based on the grand larceny of involving a vehicle numbers, cars versus mopeds?

I've heard a lot of complaints about mopeds being stolen.

So, Chair, we don't have that with us, but I think we have that.

I think that is data we can pull for you, and we will provide it.

Okay, sounds good.

So I have many more questions, but I'll pause here.

I know my colleagues have many questions, but just want to say it seems like we've obviously made a lot of progress on shootings, murders, burglaries, robberies, but compared to the numbers from prior to the pandemic, it seems like there's still a lot of room

for progress on many crime categories.

Many of these categories seem to be...

Drastically up compared to pre-COVID, including the grand larceny involving auto, felony assaults, and many other crime categories that I'll ask about later.

But for now, I'll pause.

I'll pass it to Public Advocate Williams and then Council Members Areola, Nurse, and Hanks.