By Bob Tannenhauser
The NYPD released the citywide crime statistics for the month of December 2022 with a comparison to December 2021. The report indicates a decrease in five of the seven major-crimes categories, with only felony assaults and grand larceny auto showing increases.
However, for the full year ending 2022 compared to 2021, the citywide crime statistics showed a 22% increase. Murder was the only major crime that showed a decrease for the year, which was offset by significant increases in robberies, burglaries, and grand larceny (including grand larceny auto), and also increases in rapes and felony assaults.
The charts below show the year-over-year comparison for the Upper West Side, including the 20th, 22nd (Central Park), and 24th precincts.
| 2021 | 2021 | 2021 | 2021 | |
| OFFENSE | 20TH Pct | 22nd Pct
CP |
24th Pct | Total UWS |
| Murder | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Rape | 7 | 6 | 14 | 27 |
| Robbery | 115 | 17 | 146 | 278 |
| Felony Assault | 86 | 10 | 184 | 280 |
| Burglary | 81 | 2 | 136 | 219 |
| Grand Larceny | 744 | 27 | 475 | 1246 |
| Gr Larceny Auto | 87 | 0 | 89 | 176 |
| Total | 1120 | 62 | 1045 | 2227 |
| 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2022 | 2021 | Change | |
| Offense | 20th Pct | 22nd Pct | 24th Pct | Total UWS | Total UWS | |
| Murder | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| Rape | 14 | 3 | 9 | 26 | 27 | -1 |
| Robbery | 116 | 26 | 150 | 292 | 278 | +14 |
| Felony Assault | 102 | 15 | 87 | 304 | 280 | +24 |
| Burglary | 136 | 4 | 180 | 320 | 219 | +101 |
| Grand Larceny | 828 | 26 | 525 | 1379 | 1246 | +133 |
| Grand Larceny Auto | 75 | 0 | 89 | 164 | 176 | -12 |
| Total | 1271 | 75 | 1141 | 2487 | 2227 | +260 |
Incidents of crime in the neighborhood have increased in five of the seven major-crimes categories, from 2,227 incidents in 2021 to 2,487 in 2022, with slight decreases in rape and grand larceny auto.
During the briefing on the crime stats, it was noted that a rising number of the city’s robberies — 20% –are being committed by individuals under the age of 18.
If folks don’t complain to the city Council, mayor and the governor about how many newly released criminals are being housed on the upper West side ….this will just continue.
And this is not just homeless shelters, there are a bunch of brown stones that now are housing newly released criminals.
Let’s see detailed stats on the #s of officers by rank and squad for the 24th and 20th precincts for 2022 and the previous 4 years. It took 40 minutes for the 24th precinct to respond last week to a 911 call from a female jogger being harassed and threatened by 10 male teenagers on the path below the decrepit Memorial at 89th St. This suggests a precinct greatly understaffed and poorly commanded. The response from Councilmember Gail Brewer? A letter to the precinct commander. His response? None reported. Action on the part of any official ? None so far.
This is it. For those who don’t know, ‘failure to take police action’ is an administrative offense that, if substantiated, can lead to severe discipline for the police officer or sergeant involved. I recommend that if cops refuse to respond to citizens reporting incidents to them (this also includes traffic violations and illegal vehicles w/o license plates), file a complaint with IAB or CCRB.
Keep in mind that NYPD officers take home your tax dollars every day, regardless of if they stop playing Kandy Krush on their phones. If you want to ‘fund’ the police like we’ve been doing for decades with highly questionable results, then make them work for you. Otherwise the NYPD is just a full employment program for Long Islanders
I hate to break this to you, but they are not playing on their phones. Just because you see someone on a phone, remember that you are projecting if you imagine you know what someone is doing or viewing. The police communicate individually by phone, they receive texts by phone, they go on the NYPD portal by phone, they receive perp photos by phone, they get 3-1-1 alerts, like the rest of us, by phone, they use various apps to track criminal activity by phone, they receive messages from their unions by phone and email, and all of it. This is not your grandfather’s police department, who had to go into the Post Office to see the FBI’s most wanted flyers posted on a wall. Stop complaining about cops. It’s the civilians all the way around who are driving the police to retire in record numbers. While you hide behind a ridiculous moniker like “Facts matter” you post complete fiction about “Kandy Krush.” Police don’t use call boxes anymore. As for the “highly questionable results,” you will hardly find a case NOT solved; but the police don’t put the perps back on the street. That’s the justice system. Who do you think you are kidding? YOU’RE not out there! Do you really not read the papers and don’t know that almost every crime you can name is solved in a matter of days? You’re just another anonymous armchair warrior doing absolutely nothing while complaining about the only people doing something. Grow up. By the way, call me when you show up at a community council meeting (every month!) or join the Auxiliary. I doubt you do either. Just consider this an educated guess.
“…you will hardly find a case NOT solved…”
Can you post the statistics that back up this assertion?
Thanks!
I posted but they did not post my post. Not sure what that is about. I was speaking anecdotally, if you check the high profile crime stories, in a matter of days you will see the perpetrators identified. Not sure what West Side Rag found objectionable about this, but clearly they did.
Is it? Apparently it wasn’t before the elections…
The voters of the upper west side voted overwhelmingly for Hochul, Hoylman, Rosenthal. Nadler. They have no standing to complain
I voted for Hochul not because she is fantastic but because the alternative was a conspiracy theorist, who tried to overthrow the government and install an authoritarian, who refused to agree to the peaceful transfer of power. I too am very concerned by crime but I don’t see how overthrowing the democratic process is going to help the situation.
NYPD is run by the mayor. Don’t bring a spoon to a knife fight
Adams talked tough before he was elected. He turned off lots of us bc of that. What a disappointment. He was a good compromise choice for me.
Yes NYPD is run by the city. But the state determined bailable vs nonbailable offences and decided to release (or not hold) repeated and escalating offenders.
Data released months ago and reported on by the New York Post of all places showed that bail/no bail is not a determinant in who commits violent crime. That’s a red herring whipped up by law enforcement and conservative media to deflect from the decisions of individual judges. The judiciary in this state and every other one is elected. Don’t like them? Vote them out. But I’m sick of paying for shoplifters to be locked up in a dungeon like Rikers for an indeterminate amount of time before trial because they can’t pay for bail while white collar criminals like Sam Bankman Fried get $250 mil in bond secured by unidentified individuals who keep their privacy because they’re rich.
that is correct….you get what you vote for….you want change you cant continue to put people in office who have the same mindset as the previous admin…
Where are all the social workers the Left promised?
There were 5 crimes reported yesterday from 11:00 am through 8:00 pm, all happening between 69th and 73rd from Broadway to CPW. The first was a car being stolen and the last was a person being robbed by a group of 5 teens. Obviously there were more crimes being reported outside of the area, but I’m focusing on this because too many people don’t want to believe violent crime is happening in this neighborhood. I don’t know what it is about that stretch of CPW but the robberies by ‘groups of teens’ has been an issue for years. : (
Wow – what’s the source for these – how can you get that info?
The Citizen app.
This is the info shown online: “The Citizen app generates alerts sourced from fire, emergency medical services, and 911 calls, with Citizen employees using Citizen software to monitor publicly available information.”
Anyone with the app can also go live and post videos if they see something happening while they’re out and about. There was a period of time where I had to go to DR on 72nd and B’way late at night to pick up prescriptions, and it helped me avoid a few sketchy situations.
Does the app validate that it’s a genuine emergency and that a crime has, in fact, been committed before making the information public? If not, anyone can impact the numbers you quote by making bogus 911 calls.
It validates as it’s happening. It corrects the address if necessary, and updates as to whether or not a person was armed and if the report was legitimate. It will show you how close you are to any incident that’s reported. During the height of Covid I saw a user video of my office building on fire. Luckily we were all still working remotely but that was a real shock. A lot of users post video of car accidents so be prepared to see things you don’t want to see. On a positive note, the people who run the app have worked diligently with users on the ground to successfully locate missing children.
Edit: I mentioned 5 incidents because they were all confirmed (and updated). Maybe I should have specifically mentioned that someone tried breaking the bars on the windows at Malachy’s. There are user videos involved on this app and real people witnessing and reporting these things in real time. It’s not always 911 calls.
Robbery, burglary, thieves? Close the CBD stores! They are crime magnets (cash only transactions!) and they are bringing down the neighborhood.
What is the location of the 22nd precinct? Why is it so different? I honestly don’t know which precincts handle which blocks.
22nd is Central Park
There really should be more attention and celebration regarding the significant improvements on the most important metrics: the numbers of shootings and murders. Those numbers have long been the top benchmarks for public safety, and the new emphasis on robberies and burglaries feels a bit like goalpost-moving.
Bottom line: NYC remains one of the safest big cities in America, no matter what the Citizen app or Tucker Carlson want you to believe for their own financial reasons.
I must not be seeing it in the statistics but can you point out where is says shootings are down.
I agree with your assertion that NYC remains one of the safest cities in America regardless of the media portrayal. I also agree with the statement made on other articles of the WSR that crime statistics remain lower (in some case significantly lower) than the same statistics from the mid-1980’s through the 1990’s.
At the same time, it can also be true that crime numbers are on the rise and people are rightly worried about it and, if the emphasis has shifted to robberies and burglaries, maybe we shouldn’t view it as goal post shifting but rather an attempt to combat the new crime landscape.
I simply don’t like the narrative that “serious” crime is down and the statistics are still better than “earlier times”.
Comparing current day crime with mid-1980s through 1990s is a very low bar indeed.
The number of crimes by those under 18 years of age keeps going up. Isn’t time to hold their parents/guardians accountable? They are legally responsible for these kids in every way but, when the minor breaks a law, the parent isn’t also held responsible. Maybe it’s time to change that.
and how would you propose to do this?
The slope certainly becomes very slippery when you start charging people for the crimes of others, minors or not. Is a parent held accountable if its the minors first criminal offense? what-type of crimes would you hold a parent responsible for and bring charges against them for? what happens if the minor is found not guilty in a trial or administrative hearing, but a different jury/judge finds a caregiver guilty for whatever crime they are ultimately charged with as the responsible adult?
I would like to see the crime statistic charts going back to earlier years. These statistics only reflect an increase from last year. The crime has been trending upward year after year. These stats need to be put into context to really understand how bad the crime is (an ever upward trend). How about comparing 2022 to 2018 or earlier? Maybe WSR could find those statistics?
https://www.westsiderag.com/2022/09/30/crime-on-the-upper-west-side-over-the-decades
Thank you for this detail. The 2015-2022 stats clarify that crime is continually going up. And I can’t help but believe crimes are under reported and police don’t bother arresting for “minor” offenses. Since bail reform, it’s futile as they don’t keep criminals locked up. “Trends look a bit different if 2021 rates are compared with just six years ago in 2015; the graphs show upward trends in the rates of robbery, assault, burglary, auto theft and petit larceny. And if we zoom in even further and compare the first nine months of 2022 to the same period in 2021, the data also show upticks in robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and petit larceny.”
Comparing 2022 data to 2021 is.a joke…they need to compare the numbers to 2019…before our city became a 3 ring-circus of crime
https://www.westsiderag.com/2022/09/30/crime-on-the-upper-west-side-over-the-decades
Let’s see if WSR posts my comment for a change. It seems to me that crime’s increase recently is due to two factors. First, the pandemic. Second, the attitude on the part of progressive politicians of less restrictiveness towards alleged and convicted criminals.
How is this possible? Our district just elected Brad Hoylman, who is oblivious to crime, if, in his view, it even exists. I guess this is what UWSers wanted because we had a rational alternative at the voting booth and she didn’t get any traction.
Insanity Hoylman was re-elected. Pro crime policies. He doesnt acknowledge when residents in his district are brutally assaulted or raped. But hey, here’s another term on a silver plate. Shame on every apathetic voter in our district.
Would there be an identifiable group of individuals responsible for all these crimes? I don’t mean a guy or two wearing a red jacket or a pair of purple sneakers, but a larger cohort of criminals traveling in packs and seekiong out vulnerable targets?
You get whom you vote for. I am a lifelong Democrat who did not vote for Hochul, Adams, Bragg. Sure, vote for a Democrat for president. But we need to wake up and face the fact that in local and state politics, the Democratic party cares more about criminal rights than crime.
On a related topic, apparently a number of “progressive” State Democrats are seeking to block the nomination of Judge Hector LaSalle (described as a “centrist”) to head the State Court of Appeals as Judge LaSalle is not sufficiently “progressive.”
Anyone interested in contacting elected officials – Majority Leader Andrea Stweart-Cousins and State Senator Brad Hoylman who is on the judiciary committee.
Re: Judge LaSalle, here is a discussion in NY Magazine:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/the-railroading-of-kathy-hochuls-chief-judge-pick.html
Sounds promising. Can you supply specific reasons why LaSalle would be a good judge and someone else not? We can’t go to Stewart-Cousins or Hoylman and just say that someone said that LaSalle is a centrist.
Neighbor,
op-ed by former chief judge jonathan lippman https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Commentary-Hochul-s-pick-for-chief-judge-merits-17683675.php
The op-ed is pretty vague, but thanks for linking.
To be blunt – the UWS is safer than it was during Bloomberg’s first term. The country has gone through 3 wrenching years of social upheaval. Maybe a number of UWS residents didn’t feel that because they fled the neighborhood for second homes or the burbs, maybe they didn’t feel it because they’re financially secure. But that’s the reality of what we are living.
There is a very disturbing moral panic that overlays directly onto our housing crisis and perceptions of ‘disorder’ that involve seeing people who are visibly indigent on the streets.
Guess what. UWS buildings long housed people of all social classes. There were single room occupancy hotels here for DECADES before many of the recent arrivals got here. That’s the sort of community it is – mixed up in terms of income, class, and race. If you don’t like it, Scarsdale is right up the road. Might even decrease the rents for the rest of us.
And for those who rattle on about OH THE POLITICIANS ARE RUINING THIS CITY WHY OH WHY OH WHY CAN’T WE HAVE GIULIANI TIME BACK – look at how basic services are provided. Why do the parks look rough? Why are the waste baskets not emptied? Because we devote more money to a mismanaged, recalcitrant NYPD than the government of Italy devotes to its military.
Insanity is doing the same thing again and again while expecting different results. Keep that in mind
I live on 79th & West End. Talk about tax dollars for weeks & weeks there has been a traffic cop on my corner 7 days a week – not directing traffic, not giving tickets, not doing anything. I think it’s for the work being done on the 79th roundabout. Who knows?!* I am disabled & turning 76 this Friday the 13th. What I wish for is a “cop on the beat” – a real cop who walks the “hood” & protects the people not the cars I never see police except on occasion in a car! Forget the Governor, Mayor, our representatives or city council we need watchful eyes on the ground!