Shootings soar 205 percent after NYPD disbands anti-crime unit

[Wendell]

Gun violence exploded across the city after the NYPD disbanded its anti-crime unit of plainclothes cops on June 15, with three times as many shootings in the last two weeks of the month over the same period in 2019, police stats show. And the shocking rise in gunfire — to 116 incidents from 38 between June 15 and June 2, a 205 percent increase — meant scores more victims were hurt or killed by bullets this year over last year. Gunshot injuries skyrocketed to 157 from 47 in 2019, a 238 percent increase. With a total of 205 shootings during the month, it was the bloodiest June in 24 years — going back to 1996, when the NYPD logged 236 incidents, the department said.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/04/shooti...ti-crime-unit/

[RJ]

This is my shocked face.

[WobblyPossum]

I’ve been told that the number of shootings in NYC this year has already surpassed the total for 2019.

[blues]

What a worthless, know nothing, spineless political hack looks like...

[BehindBlueI's]

Oh well. Time to send in the social workers.

[theJanitor]

I wonder how they will use this “gun-violence” data?

[blues]

I wonder how they will use this “gun-violence” data?

Fake news.

[TGS]

Oh well. Time to send in the social workers.

I LOL'd hard at that.

[SeriousStudent]

Genuinely serious question. Has anyone done a valid statistical analysis of shootings by the anti-crime officers, compared to the "regular beat" officers that I am guessing is now handling those kinds of calls?

I always think back to something I first heard from @Tom Givens: "There is no such thing as a miss, only unintended hits. Every round hits something."

I am definitely not picking any kind of anti-LEO fight here. But if people need to get shot because they are Doing Bad Things, I would believe it preferable to have the shooting done by officers who have been in other gunfights and are quality marksmen. NYC is a densely-packed place, and every shooting is very likely to be a Rule 4 nightmare.

If I wanted to bring back the Anti-Crime Unit, you could very likely prove it is safer and cheaper to have them with the hard data, no? Settlements cost a broke city lots of shekels.

Of course, the recent string of Imperial Viceroys ruling the Duchy of New York rarely pay attention to data, it seems.

[TGS]

@SeriousStudent,

FWIW, I didn't read your question as anti-cop or critical, at all.

I'm under the impression that plainclothes enforcement units get in more shootings as a general rule of thumb, because they're typically proactive and seeking trouble (or following "trouble" around and waiting to catch them red-handed on a charge worth booking them for). Also, their "calls" aren't being handled by uniformed patrol guys. Plainclothes violent offender/fugitive/drug/gang/anti-crime units don't do "calls", if you will. A lot of their work is bottom-up planning and execution, not just top-down "go here and do this" when someone calls 911.

The work simply isn't being done at all. It's not just a matter of "taking calls", if that makes sense.

As for the statistics, I'd be really interested to see that as well. Small sample, but LAPD SIS (a more niche, specialized plainclothes unit than NYPD's Anti-Crime focusing on particular violent offenders) statistically gets in more shootings-per-officer than patrol. It's something they've been heavily criticized for by anti-law groups since the 1990s.