You are reading

Crime Jumped in Queens in January, Top NYPD Officials Blame Bail Reform

Stock Photo: Unsplash

Feb. 6, 2020 By Allie Griffin

Crime across the city and in the borough of Queens jumped significantly in the first month of 2020 — which top NYPD brass attributes to bail reform.

Major crimes spiked 20 percent in the first 26 days of the year in Patrol Borough Queens North — which includes Long Island City, Sunnyside, Astoria, Jackson Heights, Ridgewood, Forest Hills and Flushing — as compared to the same period in 2019.

There were 758 serious crimes from Jan. 1 through Jan. 26, 2020 in Queens North; up from 629 during the same period in 2019, according to NYPD data.

Major crimes climbed 31 percent for the same 26-day period from the year prior in Patrol Borough Queens South — which includes the Rockaways, Jamaica, Queens Village and south. There were 712 crimes committed from Jan. 1 through Jan. 26, 2020; up from 543 in 2019, according to NYPD data.

Citywide, major crimes increased nearly 17 percent in the whole month of January from the same time last year.

NYPD Queens North and South are in different shades of blue

Top-ranking members of the NYPD including Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and Chief of the Department Terence Monahan said the rise in crime is a result of bail reform laws that took effect on Jan. 1.

“2020 is going to be a challenging year for us—you see it already,” Monahan said at a 108th Precinct meeting in Sunnyside last week. “You have all heard about bail reform. Well, we are feeling the effects of it and make no doubt about it—a lot of what is going on out there can be related to bail reform.”

The laws ended pretrial detention and cash bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including stalking, assault without serious injury, burglary, many drug offenses and certain robberies.

Judges must release people charged with such crimes and can no longer keep them in custody while their case is pending — even if they believe they’re a risk to public safety.

Cash bail was originally intended to ensure defendants come to their court appointments — not for public safety — but over time, judges began using bail as a means to keep individuals with long criminal records behind bars.

Critics of the reforms, including the City’s top cops, say that people charged with a crime — who would have previously been held unless they made bail — are instead being released and committing more crimes while awaiting trial.

NYPD officials want judges to have the option to detain people who pose a threat to public safety.

Advocates for the reforms, however, argue that cash bail criminalizes poverty and keeps poor, and often minority, New Yorkers incarcerated for minor offenses they have not been tried on, while the wealthy walk free.

Furthermore, supporters state that conclusions can’t be drawn from one month of police data.

However, Monahan — who has been a cop for 38 years and is the highest-ranking NYPD officer in uniform — said the numbers will keep rising.

“We are going to see the numbers rising and more people getting victimized,” he said at the 108th Precinct meeting last week. “These aren’t just numbers, but these are people.”

He added that there have been cases where people who had stolen a car or robbed a bank were released under the new laws only to commit the same crime soon after.

In fact, robberies and auto thefts saw the largest increases from the year prior across all of Queens and the city.

Robberies rose nearly 80 percent and auto thefts grew 113 percent from Jan. 1 through Jan. 26 in Patrol Borough Queens North — which includes the 104th, 108th, 109th, 110th, 111th, 112th, 114th and 115th precincts — from the same period the year prior. For instance, there were 97 robberies and 64 auto thefts last month compared to 54 and 30 respectively for the same period in 2019.

Crime Stats for Patrol Borough Queens North Source: NYPD

Likewise, robberies rose 47 percent and auto thefts swelled 71 percent last month (ending on Jan. 26) in Patrol Borough Queens South — which includes the 100th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 105th, 106th, 107th, and 113th precincts — from the same January period last year. There were 109 robberies and 91 auto thefts during the first 26 days of January, compared to 74 and 53 respectively for the same period in 2019.

Citywide, murders and rapes decreased last month from January 2019’s numbers — from 29 to 23, but every other crime of the seven major categories saw increases and shooting incidents rose by 29 percent from last year.

NYPD: Crime Stats for Patrol Borough Queens South

email the author: [email protected]

19 Comments

Click for Comments 
Promotions—don’t blame my pct crime #’s, blame Bail Reform.

Finally the NYPD is actually reporting crimes to hike up stat numbers. They have something to blame it on—bail reform. Why do you think they wouldn’t want you to file for a crime committed because it inflated stats and it hurts promotability.

23
2
Reply
Anonymous

Bail reform is a problem for NYC. If it’s not the major cause of the uptick in crime here in Queens, it certainly isn’t helping. People in favor of bail reform for major index crimes are CRAZY and it will contribute to a serious crime wave this summer.

12
4
Reply
Sanders4Prez

If violent crimes are up it has nothing to do with bail reform. Sounds like an NYPD “work slowdown” to me to get those numbers up.

7
1005
Reply
Shelters are a big issue

We have people from the 4 local shelters wandering around, in the summer especially they’re in packs, pretty scary. You can see they have little respect for their surroundings. I have two kids and Im trying to raise my family in a decent place.

A typical scene from last summer, pack of 20 in Thompson Hill park, 10 “adults”, about 7 teenagers and a few newborns. Blasting am LED lit boombox mounted on top of a radio flyer as they walked back to the shelter at night yelling and banging signs and cars as they walk by.

16
6
Reply
Carbie Barbie

Many people claim the cops juke the stats so it looks like crime is down even though it’s not.

This strikes me as a potential case where the cops are juking the stats to make it look like crime is UP because they’re angry about not having their abusive tool kit available to them.

I’m guessing they’re throwing their toys out of the crib because they’re cranky.

7
16
Reply
Bro

Cops going to use this opportunity to leverage the narrative to get more funds for there members.

7
12
Reply
Jose

You can take your boy out the hood but you can’t take the hood out the homie. Being caught, released and awaiting trial is not enough for some of them to stop.

16
2
Reply
Becky

What did you think was going to happen after you release all of them at once? They should of released a few monthly through a release from prison while awaiting trail lottery program or something!

9
2
Reply
Mac

Vicky – All the number crunchers need to do is pull the list of all people arrested and released in NYC from Jan 1st and review police records to see if any of their names appear on arrest records which has been confirmed. This is probably a bigger problem then we are being told because people being rearrested outside the city are not being counted in these figures.

11
Reply
Vicky

There are other political matters and changes in police practices that law enforcement does not address publicly fearing the backlash from certain politicians and groups. Basically the cops cant police properly with all the changes and its easier for them to blame bail reform.

13
17
Reply
Mac

We’re constantly being told one of the problems are defendants are being denied speedy trials, then increase the budget of the courts to facilitate the constitutional requirements of a speedy trial. There should absolutely be no bail for repeat offenders. It doesn’t sound all that complicated.,

25
Reply
Guest

“But at a press conference on the new crime stats on Tuesday afternoon, the commissioner declined to go into detail on why he thought bail reform was to blame for the increases, and when asked, could not produce any evidence that the crimes were being committed by people who were released without bail under the new reforms.”

5
20
Reply
Guest

Bail reform doesn’t just let them commit crime, lack of enforcement and lack of police presence does.
If cops are not tough on crime, we need to be tough in crime. Show those low life losers we are not an ignorant and weak town that has low standards. Stop turning a blind eye to daily issues. Report and follow up.
If cops dont take action, go a step higher.

27
3
Reply
Of course

There is no jail for crime, and “reincertion” means free stuff.
Rob instead of work, a bargain with the politicians we have.

25
1
Reply
Marc torres

As long as liberal democrats run the city, New York’s decline will continue. More people are leaving The city, than arriving, between crime and cost of living. And don’t expect the uniformed street cops to make any effort to make arrest. Theyll only get scrutinized for their efforts,being called a racist for making an arrest. Why risk their job, life,and pension
For a bunch ungrateful citizens that
endorse crime?

54
8
Reply

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News