A Bronx lawmaker grilled police brass Wednesday over crime increases across the borough after city leaders scrapped a planned police expansion, according to City Council testimony.
Bronx Councilman Oswald Feliz, chair of the Public Safety Committee, pressed department leadership on the borough’s violent crime numbers during a hearing on police statistics.
Several council members blamed Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to eliminate a planned 580-officer expansion for local spikes in violence, officials said.
Mamdani had proposed raising the department’s headcount by 580 officers to support parts of the Bronx and address training needs, records show.
The proposed positions were cut from the final city budget, according to hearing testimony.
“Forty percent of the murders the city has seen this year have been in the Bronx. About 40% of the shooting victims the city has seen this year, also in the Bronx,” Feliz said.
“It seems like we need more police in the Bronx based on numbers,” the committee chairman added.
Queens Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola argued during the hearing that the city should have retained the planned hires, records show.
“It makes sense that if we have those extra 580 cops, we would have 580 cops on the street and less crime,” Ariola said.
Inspector William Haut, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Office of Crime Control Strategies, testified during the hearing on behalf of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Haut testified that the department currently has 2,830 officers assigned to Manhattan, while 2,620 are deployed in the Bronx.
Brooklyn has 3,513 assigned officers, compared to 2,285 in Queens and 543 on Staten Island, according to the inspector’s testimony.
Tisch did not attend the hearing, records show.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Legal Matters Michael Gerber also attended the session alongside Haut, according to records.
Gerber would not confirm that the additional officers would have gone to the Bronx as reported by Spectrum News, officials said.
When council members asked whether more officers would help the department, the legal commissioner said the NYPD would welcome them.
“Between more police officers and fewer police officers, of course we’re going to want more,” Gerber said.
“But we understand we have budgetary constraints, and we feel with the cops we have, we’re having tremendous success fighting crime,” he added.
Major crime dropped 6% citywide through August, Haut told the council.
Murders citywide fell 24%, while shooting incidents dropped 9% and shooting victims declined nearly 12%, according to department data.
Haut credited the department’s precision policing strategy, which analyzes crime trends to position officers where and when they are needed most.
But crime rates moved in the opposite direction in sections of the Bronx, according to NYPD statistics.
Major crime fell 3.8% through Aug. 30 in the 50th Precinct, records show. But violent offenses spiked across the command over the same span, according to police data.
Killings in the 50th Precinct jumped from one to eight, while shooting victims rose to 12 from seven, department records show.
Felony assaults in the precinct increased by more than 11%, according to the data.
Reported rapes in the 50th Precinct climbed to 29 from 18, representing a 61% jump, police said.
In the 46th Precinct, major crime increased 9% through Aug. 30, according to department figures.
Murders in the 46th Precinct rose from six to 10, while shooting incidents increased from 18 to 21, the data showed.
Felony assaults in the command jumped 24% to 733 from 590, according to NYPD figures.
Reported rapes in the precinct increased 37.9%, rising to 40 from 29, police data showed.
Citywide, reported rapes increased 3% through August, according to police records.
Felony assaults across the five boroughs inched up 0.7%, rising to 20,200 complaints from 20,065 logged during the same period last year, NYPD data showed.
Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks said the department’s precision policing strategy was failing to produce results on Staten Island as well, according to hearing testimony.
Major crime in Staten Island’s 121st Precinct rose 1.5% and felony assaults climbed 25%, department records showed.
“Citywide major crime is down, but the picture is really not the same everywhere,” Hanks said.
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