The NYPD is boosting payments for anonymous tips from $2,500 to $3,500 to help bring down shootings and homicides, Bill de Blasio said on Monday.
The Mayor wants to slash soaring crime rates which have been the subject of criticism from his rival candidates as voters head to the polls today to select their nominees for the fall general election.
Shootings in the city are up 188 percent on last year, while homicides have surged by 750 percent.
‘I think this is going to make a big difference,’ De Blasio told a press conference.
The announcement came after another blood-soaked weekend in the city as 19 shootings and two homicides were recorded. A volunteer for Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign was also stabbed on Sunday.
Adams said the volunteer was badly wounded but was recovering. The NYPD said its investigation into the incident is ongoing.
‘I think this is going to make a big difference,’ De Blasio told a press conference on Monday
NYPD Chief Rodney Harrison said at Monday’s press briefing that the force received 1,000 tips through the Crime Stoppers program last year.
He said that the pandemic had made it even more difficult to identify suspects because people are wearing masks. Harrison said crooks were ‘capitlizing’ on the face masks.
New York reported 680 shootings from January 1 to June 20, an increase of 444 over the same period last year. There were 204 homicides in that period, another massive increase of 180 over the same timeframe in 2020.
Meanwhile the NYPD has made more than 70,000 arrests so far this year, slightly down on the same period last year.
The shocking figures come as New Yorkers head to the polls on Tuesday to select their nominees, following a campaign which has been dominated by debates over public safety and the surge in shootings.
The winner of the crowded Democratic contest, who may not be known until mid-July, will be a heavy favorite to succeed term-limited De Blasio in November’s general election.
Democratic registered voters outnumber Republican voters by more than a six-to-one ratio, state data shows.
The next mayor will be confronted with deep challenges including wealth inequality, police accountability, a lack of affordable housing and a struggling tourism industry in the country’s most populous city of about 8.2 million residents.
The leading Democratic contenders include Brooklyn Borough President Adams, former presidential candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former sanitation chief Kathryn Garcia, civil rights lawyer and former MSNBC analyst Maya Wiley and City Comptroller Scott Stringer.
New York reported 680 shootings from January 1 to June 20, an increase of 444 over the same period last year. There were 204 homicides in that period, another massive increase of 180 over the same timeframe in 2020 (file photo)
The election will be the first mayoral primary to use ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank up to five candidates in order of preference, adding a layer of uncertainty to the race.
Voters also will choose from eight Democratic candidates seeking to replace Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who is retiring. The nominee, who will be all but guaranteed to win November’s general election, would inherit Vance’s criminal probe into former President Donald Trump’s business empire.
Adams, a former police captain who put policing and crime at the center of his campaign, has led most recent polls, after months in which Yang appeared to be the front-runner. Garcia, who has run a technocratic campaign focused on her long experience in government, has risen in polls after securing the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement.
All three are considered more moderate and have called for increased police resources to combat rising crime.
Wiley, a liberal, has highlighted the protests against police violence last summer and proposed cutting $1 billion from the nearly $6 billion NYPD budget, redirecting the funding instead to other services, such as mental health counseling.
She has emerged as the preferred candidate for progressive groups, after Stringer lost numerous endorsements in the wake of two sexual misconduct allegations. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Almost all of the top candidates would make history: Adams as the city’s second Black mayor, Yang as the first Asian-American mayor, Garcia as the first female mayor and Wiley as the first Black female mayor.
Polls close at 9pm and preliminary results showing voters’ first-choice votes are expected sometime after that, but barring a surprise outcome in which one candidates exceeds 50% of first-choice votes, the final results will likely take weeks.
The Board of Elections intends to announce the first round of results from its tabulation of in-person votes on June 29 and plans to release a second round that includes some absentee ballots a week later. Final results are expected the week of July 12, after the deadline for voters to fix, or ‘cure,’ deficient ballots has passed.