Remarks: Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock Delivers Briefing

October 3, 2018

Good afternoon, thank you. As the Mayor said we continue to make unbelievable strides in reducing overall crime. We are down almost two percent in overall crime for the month of September and one percent for the year. That is a reduction of over 700 crimes year-to-date. Again we're in trend for another record setting year of below 97,000 crimes. However, year-to-date we are up 13 murders – 228 versus 215. 228 is still the second lowest number through the third quarter in history. And I would like to give some perspective on the murder increase. So I'll break the year down into quarters. But when we're talking about murders in terms of numbers this is no way shape or form meant to minimize the impact that you know tragic loss of life means to family and friends. The numbers serve to inform us to where they're happening and why and what we're doing to prevent crime.

So in the first quarter we had a record breaking low – 57 murders versus 66. 66 was the previous low. So that was a decrease of nine murders. The second quarter is where we saw a marked increase – 92 versus 70. The Bronx drove these murder numbers for the citywide second quarter with an increase of 20 murders – 33 versus 13 with no singular defining motive. However, notably stabbing murders were up 11 versus one in the Bronx, and domestics were up five versus zero. We made tremendous adjustments going into the third to address the homicides and gang violence citywide and specifically in the Bronx. We deployed [inaudible] heavily in the Bronx, we increased the CeaseFire Catchment area to include the 4-6, and 5-2 Precincts in addition to the existing Catchment areas of the 4-0 Precinct and PSA seven which covers housing in the South Bronx. We worked closely with our partners in parole and probation to add geographical and curfew restrictions and gang and crew members to prevent retaliatory violence and these weren't just one size fits all steps. A perfect example is the citywide Trinitario enforcement action, which prevented parolees and probationers from attending certain events, like Dominican Day parade. And we continue to work closely with prosecutors to enhance all gun prosecutions. These measures have brought the Bronx murder down – excuse me, the Bronx murder number down significantly in the third quarter 18-versus 26 that's a decrease of eight. Year-to-date the Bronx is still showing an increase of 14 murders – 66 versus 52. The Bronx increase of 14 may be hard to overcome by the end of the year but their shootings are down 31 year-to-date and down five shootings in September from 25 to 20, which is an unbelievable reduction in gun violence in the Bronx.

In the third quarter as the Bronx was trending down overall, Queens was 20 versus 18 but specifically Queens North saw an increase of 10 murders versus three. We saw two domestic violence tragedies that took four lives and two additional murders giving the 1-1-4 Precinct six versus one in the third quarter. Again, through analysis and redeployment we are seeing significant reductions in violence in those areas. We finished the third quarter with a total of 79 murders, which tied with last year for the lowest number of murders in any third quarter. When we talk specifically about murder in September we had an increase of three murders 27 versus 24. The murders were spread across five boroughs. Brooklyn saw an increase of five murders 12 versus seven. Queens an increase of three – six versus three. Bronx saw a decrease of one – six versus seven. Manhattan saw a decrease of two – three versus five. The majority of our 27 murders involved people known to each other. Majority had an underlying crime nexus that resulted in the murder.

Of these September murders we have seen a significant increase of people dying from being shot and 16 of our 27 murders were from guns, which is an increase of six over last year. Four of 27 murder incidents were the result of domestic violence. Two of the four incidents involved families that had no prior history of reporting with the police and in general 70 percent of our murders have no prior history of reporting.

So to that end we have been working very closely with our federal partners in the southern district to prosecute domestic violence offenders that possess a gun or ammunition. And that's a huge step towards keeping these people in prison not to increase family violence, which leads to shootings. The year-to-date number is down 28 shootings – 573 versus 601. The city has now seen increases – excuse me, the city has now seen decreases in shootings in eight consecutive quarters. September's trend was no different. We had historically low number of shootings in September, which was 70 versus 79. Our rape numbers – yes they are trending up. We had 22 percent increase – 144 versus 118 and 24 percent or 35 of those reports occurred outside of the Comp Stat that year. Our robberies are down two percent – 1,128 versus 1,151. Our felony assaults are also down 6.5 percent. Burglaries down 2.9 percent. Grand larceny down 1.2 percent. Our housing crime is down 32 crimes – down 7.7 percent for the month. And in closing I would like to emphasize that this is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and every contact we have with the victim of family violence an opportunity to provide services, document and incident that can be followed up with an order of protection, remove a gun from the household. Friends and family often know that there are people in crisis and there are discreet ways of helping them. So I am going to leave with this phone number 6-2-1 excuse me 1-8-0-0-6-2-1-H-O-P-E or 4-6-7-3.