The NYPD has gotten more than 400 firearms off the streets so far this year, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Wednesday — but the city’s top cop isn’t celebrating this “disturbing” statistic.
“You really must ask yourself, and I think more people need to start asking this: What the heck is going on with the firearms in New York City this year?” Shea said during the NYC Police Foundation’s “State Of The NYPD” event.
The commissioner said that cops have made 417 gun arrests so far in 2021 — an uptick of 75 percent from the same time last year.
“I’ll go back to what I said yesterday, I am I am very much disturbed at the amount of gun arrests that we are making in New York City,” Shea said.
“The fact that we are making this many gun arrests is a problem and really what it is, is an alarm bell that is sounding that has been sounding for at least six months.”
The increase in firearm collars continues the trend seen towards the end of 2020 when the NYPD reported more than 2,000 gun arrests over the last four months.
September saw the largest number of firearm arrests — at 607 — since the NYPD began tracking the statistic in 1994.