Police Violence Has Increased All Over New York State

Even though it may not seem like it, given recent headlines in the news across the state, New York has been experiencing a significant decrease in crime.

According to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, crime is decreasing in just about every category in every state region.

Data from both the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the New York Police Department's CompStat show that Statewide crime is down 6% year over year. To drill down even further, Nassau County has seen an 18% decline, Suffolk County has seen a 13% decline, Westchester County has seen an 8% decline, and New York City has seen a 3.5% decline, along with crime in Erie and Monroe counties as well.

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This is great news for New Yorkers, especially because crime is going down, especially violent crime. However, there is one violence statistic that is not decreasing; it's increasing - that's police violence.

According to recent data from Mapping Police Violence, reports of Police Use of Force have increased yearly all over the Empire State. This includes baton strikes, taser shots, chokeholds, pepper spray uses, and shootings.

Over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022, police agencies in New York State committed more than 61,000 uses of force, and those uses have increased year over year since 2020.

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Now, while many of these uses of force may be deemed lawful or valid, there are numerous documented cases of police brutality and illegal uses of force.

While New York State is working hard to reduce crime in every community, police departments should also be working just as hard to reduce their use of violence.