Op-Ed | Continuing to keep New Yorkers safe

Since day one, this administration has been committed to making New York City a safer, more affordable city. And we have fought to ensure that New Yorkers can pursue their dreams by improving quality of life.  

New Yorkers have raised their concerns about public safety across the five boroughs — they asked for more cops on our streets and for us to address the issues that affect their livability. We listened and went to work. We have prioritized the safety issues that communities have raised with us and taken decisive action. We have hired 4,000 new cops this year alone and are taking on issues like illegal vending, retail theft, public substance use, the mental health crisis, scaffolding, and unlicensed cannabis shops.

This week, we released our public safety report, “Safer Together: The Adams Administration’s Approach to Community-Driven Public Safety,” showing that our public safety strategy is working, and our communities, streets, and our subways are getting safer. We have refused to tolerate an atmosphere where anything goes and where crime and disorder rule our streets.

Here are our results:

We have closed over 1,300 illegal cannabis shops, removed 19,000 illegal guns from our streets and made our subways safer with a 15 percent drop in crime on our subways in November.

Because of our efforts, crime is down year to date in our city — both above and below ground. Shootings, murders, burglaries, grand larceny, auto theft, and subway crime are all down. But we know that working New Yorkers and families not only need to be safe in our city but need to feel safe, too. And this requires taking a community-driven approach that brings together all of our agencies to address long-term problems.

Nothing embodies this more than our “Community Link” program, which focuses on persistent quality-of-life issues by deploying the right mixture of agencies and officials to tackle the problems. Through Community Link, we have accomplished over 1,070 multi-agency operations, resolved over 730 community complaints, and issued nearly 16,000 summonses to ensure people follow the law. We are also focused on delivering services and helping people, for example, Community Link has helped over 200 people who were on the streets get shelter.

This week, we also announced the pilot of a new initiative that is helping us continue to sweep out crime, block by block, with the launch of our “Every Block Counts” initiative. This program addresses quality-of-life issues and works to reduce crime on city blocks with the highest historical rates of gun violence. Beginning on 10 select blocks in Brooklyn and the Bronx, we have increased patrols, increased street lighting, repainted signage, cleaned public spaces, and done even more — ensuring that families and communities remain safe. Every New Yorker deserves to live in a neighborhood where the streets and sidewalks are clean and well lit, where the street signs are clear and easy to read, and where they are free from violent crime.

Additionally, we are redoubling our efforts when it comes to protecting our young people and keeping them off a pathway to crime. We know that having no place to go and nothing to do is one of the rivers that make young people turn to a life of violence. So, this week we will open a new baseball center in Washington Heights as part of our Saturday Night Lights program, providing a space for our kids to be free, to play sports, and to just be kids. This new baseball center will give our young people an alternative on nights and weekends at the times when crimes are most likely to be committed. I know the pain of being on the wrong side of the law. I took the wrong path at 15 years of age and was given a second change; every young person deserves an opportunity like that to thrive in our city.

Our administration is making quality of life improvements and taking on crime, so families and working-class New Yorkers are safer every day. And we are going to continue to work 24/7 to keep New York City the safest big city in America.