While the NYPD attributes last month’s 31.4% decline in shootings citywide to its Neighborhood Safety Teams, tasked with taking guns off the street, major crime still permeated the Bronx and the city as whole.
Throughout the city, major crimes rose 27.8% in May compared to the same month last year, according to police data. However, with a 42.1% increase in grand larceny, 28.3% rise in burglary and a 26.2% spike in robbery citywide – and a June Siena College/Spectrum News NY1 poll that indicated more than three-quarters of New Yorker residents were concerned about becoming a victim of violent crime – the city is still gripped by the prevalence of crime.
The Bronx’s May crime stats, according to police data, indicates a 22% overall rise in crime, with major rises in boroughwide robberies (41.1%), burglary (39%) and a jump in each crime category with the exception of shootings and murder which decreased by roughly 33% and 8%, respectively.
Precinct by Precinct Breakdown:
40th Precinct – 32% rise in overall crime
41st Precinct – 48% rise in overall crime
42nd Precinct – 28% rise in overall crime
43rd Precinct – 37% rise in overall crime
44th Precinct – 42% rise in overall crime
45th Precinct – 13% rise in overall crime
46th Precinct – 2% drop in overall crime
47th Precinct – 2% rise in overall crime
48th Precinct – 24% rise in overall crime
49th Precinct – 3% rise in overall crime
50th Precinct – 54% rise in overall crime
52nd Precinct – 9% rise in overall crime
Last week, investigators with the NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Division arrested 22 alleged members of a violent Bloods-affiliated crew in the Bronx – who used Drill Rap to amplify their alleged criminality, according to police sources.
Those implicated in the investigation are being charged in a 65-count indictment with conspiracy to commit murder and other charges related to several shootings.
“We have pointed every resource we have at reducing gun violence in this city,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a prepared statement. “We have seen seven straight weeks of shootings going down – and that is not a coincidence.”
Mayor Eric Adams — who ran on a platform of reducing crime in the city — doubled down on gun violence prevention with the appointment of long-time community activist Andre T. Mitchell as the city’s “gun violence prevention czar.”
Mitchell will meet with Sewell and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks III on a weekly basis to develop recommendations on how city agencies can better help neighborhoods impacted by gun violence.
Reach Robbie Sequeira at rsequeira@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4599. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
