NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch: New Yorkers deserve an end to soft-on-crime laws that allow recidivists to make your life hell

This week, Mayor Eric Adams and I were proud to report that overall major crime declined in New York City in 2024, with 3,662 fewer crimes this year compared to last. Murders in our city are at a five-year low.Shooting incidents and shooting victims were down for the third straight year — including the lowest number of shooting incidents in Brooklyn since the early 1990s.Major crime is down in public housing, and it’s also down in our transit system for the second straight year.

In fact, discounting the pandemic years, 2024 was the safest our subways have been from major crime in 14 years. Make no mistake: These crime reductions were achieved thanks to the hard work and grit of New York’s Finest — but we know that many New Yorkers don’t feel safe.Their perception of public safety has become their reality, and we know why: surging recidivism.Compared to 2018, 2024 witnessed an unacceptable increase in the number of individuals arrested three or more times for the same crime in the same year.The increase was 61.3% for burglary, 71.2% for grand larceny, 64.2% for shoplifting and 118.6% for auto theft.

And when we look at felony assault, the increase was a staggering 146.5%.The deck has been completely stacked against our cops by a shocking lack of accountability for crime.Without a course correction, we cannot achieve the low crime levels New York City enjoyed before January 2020, when changes to criminal justice laws made it more difficult to keep recidivists behind bars.The subways will always be a bellwether for the perception of public safety in our city.And I’ll say this to New Yorkers: subway crime is not in your head.While it’s true that major crime in transit is down, random acts of violence are up.

And in many instances, these terrifying crimes are committed by recidivists who absolutely should not be on our streets or in our subways given their violent propensities.Case in point: Jamar Banks.With 40 prior convictions, Banks has a violent c...