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Brooklyn DA, Borough President celebrate record-low 2018 murder level

January 4, 2019 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eric Gonzalez and Eric Adams pose with some of the law enforcement officers and community organizers whom they have credited with helping to set a record-low number of homicides in Brooklyn last year. Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese
Eric Gonzalez and Eric Adams pose with some of the law enforcement officers and community organizers whom they have credited with helping to set a record-low number of homicides in Brooklyn last year. Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese
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The year Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez applied for his first job at the DA’s Office, he said there were 126 murders in his neighborhood. On Wednesday, he stood in Borough Hall next to Borough President Eric Adams as the two celebrated the fact that there were fewer than 100 murders in the entire borough in 2018.

“When there were 800 murders a year in Brooklyn, I don’t think you and I ever thought that we’d reach this day,” a smiling Adams said to Gonzalez. “We never thought we would have seen a consistent drop to the point where we are now under 100 homicides. That means 700 lives are still here, and 700 families were not destroyed.”

Murders aren’t down just in affluent neighborhoods or those with changing demographics, Gonzalez was quick to point out. His neighborhood, which experienced more than 100 murders per year in the 1990s, experienced just six in 2018.

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“For those of you who think that increases in public safety have been only caused by demographic changes in Brooklyn, it’s not true,” Gonzalez said. “In our housing developments — and Brooklyn has the most housing developments in the city — homicides are down 26 percent.

“In East Flatbush, where the clergy and civic leaders have been active in meeting with young people to prevent violence from starting — and the NYPD is focused on the drivers of violent crime — we are down 65 percent in homicides since 2017. In East New York, where I grew up, we’re down 45 percent in homicides.”

Both Gonzalez and Adams were quick to credit NYPD in helping set the record low, but also pointed out that one thing that Mayor Bill de Blasio has done better than his predecessor is get community groups more involved with playing a role in helping to end violence.

“For too long law enforcement has relied almost entirely on arrests, prosecutions and incarcerations to keep us safe,” Gonzalez said. “The results were broken families and the criminal justice system where there was a lot of mistrust between law enforcement and the communities we serve.

“With the help of the folks you see here today, we’re giving the younger people the tools they need to be successful in their lives and … avoid getting involved in criminal activity,” Gonzalez continued. “And we’re giving those who already made mistakes the opportunity to get a second chance to get their lives back on track.”

Murders were not the only record lows reached in 2018. Major crimes dropped overall with the exception of instances of shooting, which is still down compared to 2016, being the only major crime that increased in 2018 compared to the year before. Adams pointed out twice that this has all happened since the NYPD stopped its widespread stop and frisk program.

“Murders are going down just as stop and frisk has gone down,” he said. “So you don’t have to mistreat people and displace to make sure people are safe.”

Adams explained that the city spent $34 million on “evidence-based strategies to prevent gun violence,” and called on legislators to add another 20 percent to that budget to assist community groups, including many religious groups and the precinct community councils.

Gonzalez said that a key factor in the continued drop in murders in Brooklyn and New York City was rebuilding the trust between communities and law enforcement. He pointed out that his office has reduced the number of people it sends to Rikers Island by 43 percent in 2018, and that it has decreased prosecutions for marijuana possession by 98 percent since the start of the year.

“Focus resources away from low-level offenses, and put them back to where they belong in fighting violent crime,” Gonzalez said, without explicitly denouncing broken-windows policing.


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  1. Chris J

    Hi folks! I don’t know if this’ll reach anyone in the know, but I have a question about this press conference. There are images going around the internet of what look to be NYPD patrol cars redesigned with the name “Muslim Community Patrol,” or MCP. There also are images purportedly from this press conference (found on this website: https://www.boropark24.com/meet-the-community-patrols-keeping-nyc-safe/) of Eric Adams and Eric Gonzales pointing to a car with the letters “MCP” on the hood.

    I was wondering… are these images accurate? Is there perhaps a video of the press conference online somewhere that I might be able to view?

    I’m not with any press or anything, I’m just a random person on the internet, so… up to you if you want to respond. I’m just curious if these images are real, or what the real story behind them might be. Thank you for your time!

    January 4, 2019 at 2:50 pm
    Reply