NY mayor puts patrols in crime hot spots

After witnessing an unnerving rash of violence during his first three weeks in office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday a multipronged plan to address increasing gun violence.

Adams, who is under piling pressure to deliver on his promise to improve public safety in the United States' largest city, will reintroduce an anti-crime plainclothes police unit over the next three weeks as part of his plan. The unit was dissolved in 2020 amid concerns that it was responsible for a disproportionate number of shootings and complaints against officers.

Called Neighborhood Safety Teams, the unit will work in 30 precincts where 80 percent of the city's violence occurs.

Adams said the officers will receive extra training and wear clothing that identifies them as police, and be equipped with body cameras.

The former New York City police captain discussed his plan at City Hall three days after two New York City police officers were shot in Harlem during a domestic incident. One officer was killed and the other gravely injured in what Adams has called "an attack on the city of New York".

Their assailant, 47-year-old Lashawn McNeil, died on Monday at a hospital, police officials said. He was shot in the arm and head by a rookie cop, who was along on the call to observe.

Adams called for immediate changes to add police officers to city streets to remove guns and for help from the courts and state lawmakers.

Spate of violence

In 2021, gun violence in New York increased by 4.3 percent compared to 2020, which was itself up from 2019, against the backdrop of economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the three weeks since Adams was sworn in, a spate of crimes has shaken the city.

A baby was shot in the Bronx last month, and 19-year-old fast-food worker Kristal Bayron-Nieves was killed during a robbery in Manhattan on Jan 9.

Michelle Go, a 40-year-old Asian American, was pushed to her death in front of a train at Times Square subway station on Jan 15 by a homeless man with a history of mental illness.

Adams admitted after the deadly Times Square assault that even he does not feel safe taking the subway.

On Monday, there was more bad news for commuters. Police said the city's subway system last year recorded its highest number of murders and assaults in years.

There were 461 felonious assaults, eight murders and eight rapes carried out on the subway system, all increasing from 2020 levels, according to police statistics. The rise in violence comes as subway ridership remains well below pre-pandemic levels.

The number of assaults recorded last year through November in the subway system was the highest since at least 1997. The number of robberies and thefts in 2021 fell from the prior year.

The number of homicides also increased last year. After a record low 292 in 2017, the city had 468 killings in 2020 and 488 last year.

Adams announced the city's police department would increase cooperation with state and federal law enforcement to stem the flow of illegal guns into the city and would work to have officers conduct spot checks for weapons at entry points into the city such as at bus and train stations.