Good News, Bad News: City's Push To Reduce Gun Violence Yields Mixed Results
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- There have been mixed results in New York City's efforts to reduce gun violence.
Some precincts, which have gotten special attention and extra patrols, have had good news to report. However, as CBS 2's Tony Aiello reported, the news citywide was bad with shootings on the rise.
It's been a quiet few weeks in Canarsie, something that residents credit to an increase in cops being assigned to patrol the 69th Precinct.
Good News, Bad News: City's Efforts To Reduce Gun Violence Yield Mixed Results
"It's made a big difference. They're cracking down on everything in this area," John Lopez said.
"There's been less fights, less violence, less guys just hanging around with nothing to do," Shatora Blue added.
Desk cops have been moved to patrols as part of "Operation Summer All Out." Several of the dozen precincts that have gotten extra officers have seen gun violence stabilize or drop.
Citywide it's a different story.
Compared to last year, in the last seven days across the five boroughs shootings are up 71 percent.
Over four weeks they've spiked 25 percent. Year-to-date shootings have increased 12 percent compared with 2013.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said that the problem has been given the department's full attention.
"We're very focused on where they are occurring and my comfort level is that over time we'll be able to push back down on them as we start arresting those involved," he 1010 WINS' Al Jones.
A leading NYPD expert said that the spike could stem from the dramatic reduction in Stop and Frisk.
"At some point people on the streets who would have been inclined to carry guns, but didn't because they knew they faced a risk of being stopped, they're gonna conclude that the stop risk is now permanently dropped and they're going to go back to carrying guns. That could well be what's going on now," Heather MacDonald, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
Commissioner Bratton has said that the department had taken Stop and Frisk to extremes in recent years, and that the spike in shootings defies easy explanation.
Despite the increase in shootings, the city has seen fewer murders. The number of murders has dropped almost 10 percent so far in 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.
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