New York City saw a decrease in nearly all major crimes in August 2023 when compared to the same month last year, according to new statistics released Wednesday by the NYPD.
The city saw an overall crime decrease of 1.5% year-over-year, the numbers showed.
The decrease was due in large part to a 23.5% drop in shooting incidents citywide, from 115 to 88, according to the NYPD.
The department added that a total of 342 gun arrests were made in August 2023. Overall, the department seized 4,611 guns and made nearly 3,000 gun arrests during the first eight months of 2023, officials said in a release. The department saw a reduction in five of the seven major crimes, according to the NYPD.
That included one fewer murder in August 2023 (31) compared to August 2022 (30); a 23.4% decline in rapes (from 145 to 111); a 6% drop in robberies (from 1,659 to 1,560); a 15.1% decline in burglaries (from 1,395 to 1,185); and a 2.8% drop in grand larceny incidents (from 4,751 to 4,620). In August 2023, NYPD officers made 4,796 arrests in the seven major crime categories, a 19.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
"In the first eight months of this year, officers made 35,429 such arrests – the most for any eight-month period since 1999,” the department said in a release.
Hate crimes and transit crimes also dropped, according to the NYPD. The department that the number of crimes in the city’s public housing network was identical in August 2023 and August 2022 (559), and that the number of felony assaults increased by eight (an 0.3% increase, from 2,389 to 2,397.
The department did see a significant increase in car thefts, with 1,497 reported thefts in August 2023 compared to 1,204 in 2022, statistics showed.
The NYPD has pointed to a vulnerability in the ignition systems of certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles as being behind the increase in car thefts.
According to officials, that vulnerability has been exacerbated, in part, by viral how-to videos posted on TikTok and other social media sites where young people inform and encourage others to partake in a challenge to steal the susceptible vehicles.
Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday morning addressed the increase in car thefts during a news conference, and announced a plan to crack down on the thefts throughout the five boroughs.
“Each police precinct now has a vehicle dedicated to combating car theft that is equipped with two mobile license plate readers, also called LPRs – great tools that will be able to identify stolen cars on the road,” Adams said.
Adams said these cars will be on patrol 24/7, and will flag vehicles that have been reported stolen or missing for NYPD officers on patrol, in effect working as a liaison to detective squads in each precinct.