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Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday he is “concerned” about an increase in crime during the hot summer months, as he pledged to soon add more NYPD anti-gun units to patrol the five boroughs.
“The summer months are difficult months, and we are concerned about them, because you want to win January, February, [and] March,” he told the host of PIX 11’s “PIX on Politics.”
The mayor went on to tout the city’s expansion of summer youth jobs to 100,000 employment opportunities, pledged to “empower” the crisis management system, and the rollout of the NYPD’s Neighborhood Safety Teams tasked with making illegal firearm arrests.
Adams’ comments come as serious crime and gun violence has already risen before the hot summer months, when shootings typically soar. New NYPD data released last week showed a 37 percent increase in major crimes citywide, and that shooting incidents spiked 16.2% in March and year to date.
In an attempt to quell gun violence in the Big Apple, Adams in mid-March launched a new hybrid plainclothes police squad known as Neighborhood Safety Teams to replace the undercover teams tasked with firearm busts nixed under his predecessor.
Asked Sunday morning by PIX host Dan Mannarino “would you like to see more units going into the summer months, and if so, how many?” Adams replied, “Yes, we do,” without specifying the amount.
“A couple of things we need to do: we must analyze the manpower of the police department. Too many police officers are doing civilian jobs,” Adams continued, reiterating his February promise of an “immediate redeployment” of cops on desk duty. “I need them back in the street, we need them to do the jobs New Yorkers hired them for. Let civilians do civilian jobs.”
After the slightly delayed March 14 rollout of the NSTs, a central piece to Adams’ blueprint to reduce shootings, the NYPD on March 21 added five more units, The Post exclusively reported at the time. About 170 officers made up the first wave of units that patrolled 28 neighborhoods where shootings have increased during the pandemic.
The new plainclothes squads — a revamped version of the anti-crime teams disbanded in the summer of 2020 by former Police Commissioner Dermot Shea due to their involvement in a “disproportionate” share of misconduct complaint and shootings — wear uniforms that clearly identify them as NYPD officers unlike the old plainclothes squads.
Adams has repeatedly promised that the new teams will not repeat mistakes made by the “abusive” anti-crime units.
But while Adams has billed the NSTs as an “anti-gun unit” rather than an anti-crime one, the majority of its officer’s arrests have so far been for alleged offenses that are unrelated to firearms, a top NYPD official revealed Wednesday during a crime briefing.
The NSTs have made 135 arrests, and just 25 of them — or 19% — were for firearms, said Chief of Department Ken Corey. Of those arrested for guns, four were juveniles, five have open felony cases and seven were previously convicted of a crime, he said. In total, 91 of the 135 cuffed have prior arrests, 57 have prior felony arrests and 21 were on parole or probation when they were taken into custody, Corey said.
On Sunday morning during his TV appearance, Adams expressed appreciation for state legislators and Gov. Kathy Hochul including tweaks to progressive criminal justice reforms in the new fiscal year budget — but again declared “there’s more to do” in Albany on the matter before the end of the legislative session in early June.
“I thank God for those lawmakers who understood what I was saying, and the governor for partnering when she came up with her 10-point plan. There’s more to do,” Adams said. “We must make sure there are no loopholes for anyone that will commit a violent crime in the city.”
“So I commend them on what was done,” he added. “It was a real W, but there’s more to do, and we have another few months in Albany to do it.”
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