Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Appears Live on NY1's Mornings on 1

January 6, 2023

Rocco Vertuccio: Mayor Adams says significant progress has been made in turning the tide on one of his administration's marquee issues — public safety and crime. The NYPD, releasing its statistics for the month of December yesterday, it found significant decreases in crime across several key categories, including murders, rape, robberies, and grand larceny compared to the same month in 2021. There have been increases though in felony assaults, auto theft cases, and transit, but overall, the index crime is down by more than 11 percent.

Mayor Adams joining us now this morning, on this Friday. Mr. Mayor, great to have you with us this morning. First of all, Happy New Year and also happy anniversary. One year now you've been in office, at least three more to go. One down, at least three more. Welcome, good to have you.

Let's start with the crime numbers, Mr. Mayor. No doubt that there are some positive numbers, some positive results there. Last month compared to December of the year before a drop in overall crime, a drop in most of the major categories. You said yesterday and the police commissioner said, specifically talking about precision policing, making the difference. What stands out to you in these numbers?

Mayor Eric Adams: Well, I think a number of things is how you're trending. In January, when we took over this administration, we were trending upwards. We had an over proliferation of guns on our streets and many gangs that were driving a lot of the violence in what we were witnessing, these crews just had a total disregard for public safety. And then there was those quality of life issues that really fed into crime. The paper plates, the illegal dirt bikes, using scooters and other moped devices to do robberies. We cracked down across the board, put more police officers into our subway system, had a real initiative towards the mental health illness that we were witnessing in our city, and so it was a combination that the police commissioner put in place to start trending in the right direction. The last six months, you saw a clear indicator that we are trending in the right direction. We have to continue that in 2023.

Vertuccio: And Mr. Mayor, certainly again progress, but of course more needs to be done. When you look at all of last year versus all of the year before — overall crime up. So we know it's working in terms of precision policing, what isn't working? What do you think needs to be tweaked or changed in this new year as you continue tackling crime?

Mayor Adams: If I had to use one term, I would say recidivism. It is something I shared with my colleagues yesterday, with Reverend Sharpton and Dr. Hazel Dukes at NAN. We had a meeting to talk about how do we have a combined effort to look at some of our other success. We had a successful year in Albany with some of the things New York City needed, and we want to look at how do we build on that success and one area is recidivism. We have about 1,600 people in this city that are recidivous, they're dangerous, they'll continually commit crimes over and over again. And we must zero in on them and send the right message that our criminal justice system is going to handle them accordingly.

And then we have to fix some of the problems in our criminal justice system. People often talk about bail, but it's just so much more than that. That is a buzz term that is only focusing on one area. We have a real problem in our criminal justice system and that's what we want to do with our partners in Albany.

Vertuccio: And Mr. Mayor, touching on that meeting you have with the reverend and other top Black elected officials at the city and state level. After that meeting you said that outside forces you say managed to hijack the narrative around public safety last year. Can you explain a little bit more about that? What did you exactly mean?

Mayor Adams: Hijacked the narrative about our success, not just public safety. We heard all of last year that we had an unsuccessful time in Albany last year. That was just untrue. We went there to get NYCHA Land Trust funding, we received it. We got hotel conversion. We got money for earned income tax credit to put pockets in of people who are struggling. We received childcare dollars, a substantial amount of money we received. We had so many victories in Albany and it was hijacked and it was unfortunate when you saw the leadership, that we came together on those things we agreed and we delivered for New York, and only one item was focused on as though we had a complete failure and we didn't.

And we're not going to allow that to happen in 2023. We're going to lean into these areas that we are successful to deliver for the people of this city and state, and we're going to focus on those areas that we disagree on and bring them home so we can find a solution to keeping our city safe.

Vertuccio: And Mr. Mayor, let's talk about immigration. Obviously, something that's impacting our city in a major way. You praised the Biden administration yesterday for announcing those tougher restrictions, automatically turning away thousands and thousands of undocumented immigrants who come from several countries including Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba. How quickly do you think this will help us here in our city? I know you say more needs to be done, that this was a first step. How important of a first step is this and what is the next step do you think?

Mayor Adams: Well, this was so important. We saw what happened when the border was just open, and everyone was allowed to come through. It impacted our city directly because unfortunately other municipalities chose to send people only to New York City. Over 36,000 people have gone through our system, roughly 24,000 are still there. And it's more just a bed to sleep. It is food, clothing, education, healthcare, all of these things and it's draining the resources of everyday New Yorkers. And it's just unfair.

And it's not only unfair to New York City, it's unfair to Washington, to Chicago, to El Paso. All of these cities should not be handling a national crisis. This is a humanitarian crisis that was created by man and man needs to fix it. And when I say men and women on our federal level, they must do their part.

I want to thank Senator Schumer and Congressman Jeffries; they lead in and the Democratic part of the Congress for what they have done. We first received a few million dollars from the FEMA, and we believe in the Omnibus Bill there's a substantial amount of money that we can go after as well, but that's not going to fix the border crisis. We must fix the border crisis so we can stop this flow. Yesterday's step was one of the steps that we need.

Vertuccio: Mr. Mayor real quick, we just have a few seconds left. The governor delivering her state of the state address next week, you have a good working relationship with her. Again, it's just a few moments. What are you specifically looking to hear from her in that address that will help our city achieve some of the things that you need to achieve?

Mayor Adams: Housing. We listed several things around housing. She and I both understand the importance of building more housing, there are few things we can do on a state level that would make it easier. And lastly, recidivism. She and I both see eye to eye on how important it is to get dangerous people off our streets, and I'm hoping that we see some things that's going to zero in on recidivism as we rebuild our economy. I'm excited about her term as governor. I'm looking forward to serving with her.

Vertuccio: Mayor Adams, thank you for your time this morning. We really do appreciate it. Happy Friday. Happy first anniversary in office. Thanks, Mayor Adams.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Vertuccio: Let's go back to it.

Mayor Adams: Take care.

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