The rise in gun violence has city, police and community leaders trying to get a handle on calming the streets.  But even with continued efforts to stop it, the numbers paint a picture that the surge isn’t going away any time soon.

Lucy Lang, director of the institute for innovation of prosecution at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says the spike in shootings isn’t distinctly tied to police reforms.

“There’s no question that violent crime is up across the city, but that’s true in big cities across the country, which indicates that it’s not attributable to the recent criminal justice reforms,” she told NY1.

Lang is also a former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney.

She says there have been about 197 murders citywide to date this year, compared to 150 a year ago during this same period. Manhattan has not seen this amount of shootings since 2006.

Lang says “old-fashioned detective work has been impeded by the pandemic may be contributing to this.”

“The traditional ways that crime gets interrupted by the criminal justice system — which is to say proactive investigations, debriefings of people who are arrested, execution of search warrants — those things are severely limited by the shutdown,” she explained.  

Lang says the way out is to have “all hands on deck,” such as providing resources and having proactive programs.

Lang joined Mornings On 1 via Skype.