The New York City Police Department released updated statistics for the first quarter of the year, showing major crimes are on a downward trend.

“This is the safest big city in America and the numbers reflect that and the movement of the police department continues to reflect that,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference on Wednesday.

What You Need To Know

  • On Wednesday, the NYPD released their latest crime statistics, which showed that overall crime in the city is down, as is transit crime
  • Transit crime is down more than 23% during the first quarter of the year compared to the same three months last year, according to the NYPD
  • Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that the city is dealing with the perception of crime versus reality when it comes to the subway system
  • The mayor said police officers in the subway system are going to focus more on engaging disorderly individuals

Transit crime is down more than 23% during the first quarter of the year compared to the same three months last year, according to the NYPD.

“Can we please stop saying we’re up in crime in our subway system? We are not. We’re down in crime in the subway system,” Adams said.

The mayor and the police department are pushing back against criticism over their subway safety approach.

“Sometimes I feel that some people are disappointed that this is the safest big city in America because it can’t drive headlines,” Adams said.

Adams feels the real problem with subway safety is perception.

“It becomes challenging when someone writes a story that says homicides are up 150%,” Adams said, seemingly alluding to a recent column by Harry Siegel of the the Daily News. “We are winning on being safe. Now we have to win on feeling safe.”

The mayor said Wednesday that the perception problem is compounded by a sense of “lawlessness” in the system. Police officials say arrests are up for fare evasion and other disorderly conduct.

“What we’ve witnessed over the years is just an erosion of just the proper etiquette to ride our subway system. That erosion just continued and continued and became an anything goes system,” Adams said.

In recent weeks, Adams has put 1,000 additional police officers into the city subway system, launched a fare evasion task force and put out a bid for gun detection technology.

“We are engaging in these acts of lawlessness at or near historic highs in the subway system and we’re going to continue that way,” NYPD Chief of Transit Michael Kemper said Wednesday.

Adams and the police department in the last week have been on an aggressive and public approach to counteract criticism of subway safety.

Some of the department's chiefs have used social media to personally attack Siegel for his criticism last week.

Appearing on "Mornings on 1," NYPD leaders have refused to back down, saying they are standing up for the work of the department.

“We are talking about a perception issue in this city and in order for us to change perception we have to enter the space of social media as well,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said Wednesday.

Siegel sees it differently.

“I think that Eric Adams and the police department have this implicit assumption that people want more police,” Siegel said Wednesday. “People feel less safe underground. They feel about as safe during the day now as they did at night a few years ago. It's a huge difference.”