De Blasio: NYPD’s ‘Summer All Out’ crime program is working

Shootings Down Almost 30 Percent in Participating Precincts

July 16, 2015 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Bill de Blasio. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

Share this:

Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton on Wednesday said that NYPD’s “Summer All Out” initiative, which deploys officers and resources to high-crime areas, was making progress, with a reduction in shootings of almost 30 percent in participating precincts.

So called “index crimes” are down almost six percent in these precincts. (These include willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft, and arson.)

“The NYPD has an extraordinary ability to make strategic adjustments, to apply resources where they’re needed at most, and to change a situation on a dime – we’ve seen it time and again,” de Blasio said at a press conference held at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx. “So in just over a month, shootings down 30 percent in those precincts,” he said.

The program started on June 1, after a rash of shooting incidents. Brooklyn Precincts include the 75th Precinct in East New York and the 67th Precinct in East Flatbush.

In the program, the NYPD temporarily reassigned 330 administrative officers to boost patrols in ten high-crime precincts and four high-crime police service areas. The NYPD also partnered with community groups to target gangs and street crews.

The mayor also said the city was moving forward with body cameras, and boosted Commissioner Bratton’s new model for neighborhood policing, calling it a “game changer.”

“Officers are going to have an opportunity to really build the relationships, get to know people – everyday residents, clergy, shopkeepers, leaders of the community – to really build a bond that will make a difference,” de Blasio said.

Not all crime is down, however. The latest CompStat numbers show a six percent increase in rape and misdemeanor sex crimes this year over last.

The mayor and Commissioner Bratton said that some of the increase was likely due to increased reporting of rape. Noting the recent rape of an 82-year-old woman in Brooklyn, Bratton said, “That is a case in point where she was not going to report that incredible crime.”