Milka Tejada navigates the streets of her Inwood neighborhood with caution, because although police have indicated that crime in general has decreased, she, like many in the area, senses otherwise.
“Statistics prove it, but in my opinion crime has increased. Citizens don’t feel safe here in NY, especially here in this area, because I feel like ‘downtown there are more cops, but not in our area, we need to more reinforcements, more police,” Tejada said.
According to the authorities, overall crime decreased by 1.2% last November compared to the same month last year. Three of the indices measuring serious crime have declined, they point out.
Violence on the subway.
For example, rape saw a decline of 14.1%.
Ordinary robberies were down 6% and large-scale thefts, such as automobiles, were down 5.5%.
“I don’t believe in those numbers, a lot of crime, a lot of people attacking, a lot of madness on trains,” said Inwood resident Melvin Corporán.
As for shootings, again the numbers show that they were down 32.8% in November compared to the same month last year.
Gun homicides have decreased by up to 11.1% each year since 2021.
The police indicated in the report that its priority is to prevent citizens from falling victim to gun violence.
“I think they are trying, but the problem is that things keep happening every day, with the news we see on a daily basis letting you know that we really need more police. So, that’s something they can say in their stats, but the reality is something that happens every day, you see it, the whole world sees it, ‘so’ imagine,” said Javier Rivera, another Inwood resident.
Arrests of people carrying guns increased by 3.9%, indicating that they managed to get 6,638 firearms off the streets.
The authorities’ report underlines that the police will never stop fighting crime and protecting its citizens.
