De Blasio: Numbers “Moving in the Right Direction” After NYPD Slowdown

Mayor de Blasio says the numbers appear to be "moving in the right direction" following his police commissioner's admission that there appeared to be a system-wide NYPD slowdown in the wake of the Eric Garner grand jury decision and execution-style slayings of two officers as they sat in their squad car in Brooklyn last month by a gunman who later killed himself.

The mayor also said the city's tense relationship with rank-and-file police, which drew widespread attention after officers turned their back to de Blasio on several occasions, including at the hospital where the two officers were brought following the Bedford-Stuyvesant shooting and at their funerals, is improving -- and would continue to progress.

"You're going to see a constant improvement in the dynamic," the mayor said.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday arrests are down 44 percent compared with last year, which is not as egregious as the 59 precent drop recorded last week compared with the same time period the year before and appears to support the mayor's earlier contention.

"The officers are going back to work," Bratton said. 

In the two weeks after two NYPD officers were shot to death in their patrol car Dec. 20 by a fugitive who had ranted online about avenging police killings, low-level arrests citywide dropped 61 percent. Summonses were down more than 90 percent. Arraignment courts have been so slow they have sometimes closed early, and Rikers Island's jails have about 2,000 fewer inmates.

On New Year's Eve, when a million revelers packed Times Square, no tickets were issued for having an open container of alcohol, public urination, double parking, or harassment by costumed characters. One arrest was made on a low-level, subway-related charge.

During the Christmas week, when the neon-lit streets were every bit as jammed, the total for such infractions was 23 — compared with more than 650 summonses per week the previous year, according to police statistics.

On Friday, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said he'd concluded that some officers had purposefully cut down on small-time arrests and tickets — and that enough was enough.

"We'll work to bring things back to normal," he said, adding that the numbers were already rising. No officers are being disciplined, with Bratton noting "the extraordinarily stressful situations" in a month filled with protests, police funerals and discord. The latest figures will be available Monday.

Police unions say there was no sanctioned work slowdown, and they are quick to point out that officers are still rising to the call of duty. Just this past week, two police officers were shot and wounded responding to a report of a robbery moments before their shifts ended.

"Our members are doing their job," said Pat Lynch, head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which represents 24,000 officers.

The 14-block precinct in the heart of Times Square was among at least seven across the city where not a single summons was issued for parking, moving or criminal violations during New Year's week — a statistic that makes some people nervous.

To Army veteran Hortensia LaCorbiniere, police aren't in a position to back off on doing any part of their jobs, whatever the reason.

"Their orders are to protect and serve," LaCorbiniere said as she went to a medical appointment in another precinct with zero tickets on Manhattan's East Side. "You do your job, or you get out of that occupation."

The slowdown has overshadowed an overall, years-long decrease in every measurable crime statistic: complaints of crime, arrests and summonses. Crime of all kinds decreased 4 percent to all-time low in 2014, when there were 332 homicides, down from 335 the previous year.

The slowdown in enforcement hasn't translated to a rise in crime. In the past two weeks, reports of serious crimes were down to 3,704 from 4,130 in the same period a year earlier. 

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