The New York City Council Committee on Public Safety, chaired by Oswald J. Feliz, held an oversight hearing on September 16, 2026, to examine NYPD crime statistics. The hearing focused on areas of progress, such as historic lows in shootings and murders, and persistent challenges, including a sharp rise in felony assaults and grand larceny auto compared to pre-pandemic levels. NYPD representatives Inspector William Howard and Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber testified, and the committee heard from multiple public witnesses.
Good afternoon, good afternoon. Welcome to the New York City Council hearing on the Committee on Public Safety at this time. Please silence all electronics and do not approach the dais. At this time, if you are testifying today, make sure you ensure that you have filled out a slip at the back of the room. Any other questions or concerns, please reach a sergeant at arms. Thank you for your cooperation. Chair, we're ready to begin. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Councilmember Oswald Felice, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety. I want to welcome everyone to today's hearing on NYPD crime statistics. I also want to welcome committee members who have joined, including Councilmembers Hanks, Banks, Nurse, Ariola, Wong. I also want to welcome our public advocate Jumani Williams. The public safety committee is holding today's hearing to take a comprehensive look at the areas of public safety that have seen progress. We've made a lot of progress these past few years, including on the issue of shootings and murders. They're currently at historic lows. This is something that we have to celebrate and recognize. One examine the areas that have seen progress. We also want to take a look at crime categories that require attention. We've again made a lot of progress on issues related to shootings and murders. But when we look at the crime statistics from 2019, the pre-pandemic years, it is clear there's still room for significant progress. This is true for many crime categories, including and especially felony assaults. Felony assaults are drastically up compared to the pre-pandemic years, 2017, 2018, and 2019. If a math is correct, we've if my reading of the CompStat report is correct. Uh, we've had so far 21.5,000 felony assaults this year, year to date, versus about 15,000. 21.5 versus 15,000 year to date in 2019. The same is true for many other crime categories, including grand larceny involving a vehicle. We want to better understand the challenges and discuss what more can be done to address these challenges effectively. And of course, our goal is to have a hearing like this before the end of every year. Look at the areas that we've made progress, uh, but also think about the challenges that we have and think about ways and steps that we can take to uh help resolve those challenges. We are thankful for the work and sacrifices of police officers, the work and sacrifices that I make every single day to keep our city safe. Public safety is a shared responsibility. We achieve it with good schools, good jobs, and strong communities. Police officers play an important role on this issue. They help ensure that residents can engage in these activities, work, school, opportunity, without having to worry about their safety, and we are thankful for that. Their dedication and commitment to the city does not go unnoticed. I want to thank members of the NYPD and all stakeholders uh who are testifying today. Welcome back to City Hall, the People's House. I would like to thank my staff and committee staff for their hard work. Josh Kingsley, Senior Counsel to the Committee, Chad Benjamin, policy analyst, Esperanza Diaz, my chief of staff, and St. Tiago Bayan, I'm my legislative director, and many others who have joined, including I see Nini from my team. I look forward to productive discussion on what's going well, but also the challenges uh that remain and steps that we can take to help resolve these challenges. Thank you. Now I want to briefly pass it on to our very own public advocate, Jumani Williams. Thank you so much, uh, Mr. Chair, and this is an extremely important hearing. Uh I think the public is very concerned about public safety and media is not helpful as they often warp what's going on to uh doomsday scenario unnecessarily. So data from the NYPD is really, really important for the public to see. As I mentioned, my name is Jamani Williams, public advocate for the city of New York. Again, thank you, Chair Feliz and the members of the Committee on Public Safety for holding this important hearing and for the administration PD for being here.