Chair Hudson questions DHS on increase in shelter arrests
Hudson cites NYPD data showing arrests rose from 405 in Q3 FY25 to 512 in Q4. Dalton says she is integrating data, questions NYPD data quality, and notes arrest is a measure of police activity.
According to NYPD's precinct-level homeless shelter arrest data, in Q4 of fiscal year 2025, there were a total of 512 arrests.
There were 405 arrests in Q3.
To what do you attribute the increase in arrests in Q4 of FY25?
Yes.
How about we stop thanking for the questions?
But just now it's a habit.
So the issue of trying to align and integrate the important data that comes from other reporting sources like the NYPD is something that is very important to me.
So I've spent the last couple of weeks really trying to integrate the arrest data, the complaint data, the 911 data, along with our
incident reporting data, our complaint data, into one set of information that we can then use on a very regular basis to manage the system.
I will say we're close to having that data integrated and usable, but not quite there.
And so just like you, I'm relying on the data that's publicly available.
And this is from quarterly reporting.
that NYPD was producing and actually stopped after 2025.
I believe it's actually no longer required.
And so I just want to assure you it is of utmost interest to me to be able to
observe and take action on areas where we're seeing improvements, and we can model those improvements in other places as well as places where we're seeing concerns.
So I do actually have some
questions about the quality of the data that NYPD was reporting here.
But for the quarters that you actually asked about, quarter three of 2025 and quarter four of 2025, we do see something similar in our data.
So we do see an increase in reported incidents during that period.
And so we may
these two things might be correct and observing.
And again, I reported on some of those observations in the data that we have.
And so while I don't have an explanation, it is something we should work with NYPD to look at.
I will say arrest is probably not the best measure of incident.
It is more of a measure of police activity.
And I think in combination with those other set of measures can help us to understand a picture, but alone, I think, don't also tell us all that much about what's happening in our system.
Okay, that's fair.
Thank you for the answer.