Spike in January serious crime is fixable, says NYPD Commissioner Shea

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea again acknowledged Tuesday the city's unexpected serious crime spike in January but said the department was pushing forward with new strategies aimed at helping vulnerable city youths.

 At the same time, Shea, with Mayor Bill de Blasio at his side during the monthly crime briefing, reaffirmed his view that the new bail reform law was partly to blame for the increase. Shea avoided making the kind of full-throated criticism of bail reform he made just two weeks ago. Instead, the police commissioner said he held out hope legislators in Albany would make needed changes.

Shea and other police brass noted that even as homicides and rapes declined by double-digits in January, other serious crimes went up. Overall, major felonies in New York City rose by nearly 17 percent in January to the highest level in five years, according to police statistics.

The January increase prompted de Blasio, who usually starts his remarks at the crime briefing by congratulating the NYPD, to express confidence in the department's ability to reverse the upward trend in serious crime.

“That is cause for real concern,” de Blasio said of the January crime numbers. “We take it seriously, have publicized, we can confront it and we can overcome it because that is the history of the NYPD.”

 Asked what drove the increase, Shea didn’t back away from his recent criticism of the bail reform, which went into effect Jan. 1 and did away with bail for most nonviolent crimes, but said he preferred to take an upbeat approach.

“I am so positive because I know the work of the men and women of this department and what they are capable of doing,” he said. “Challenges are not something that sprung up in our way … the important thing here is what we are doing about it.”

The NYPD's youth and Neighborhood Policing strategies are key components of reducing crime, the commissioner said.

 “We will get through this,” Shea said. “Is it a challenge? Absolutely it is a challenge. But we will find our way out of this."

Shea dismissed the suggestion that the nearly complete ending of stop, question and frisk has emboldened criminals. 

 “That has no correlation to me," Shea said.

 The commissioner had strong words for demonstrators in the transit system over the weekend who he said committed acts of vandalism and arson. Protesters demanded free transit for everyone and banning police officers from subway stations.

Shea sounded less than impressed Tuesday.

 “I think that was amateur hour," he said, adding that the protesters were "a bunch of knuckleheads quite frankly.”

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.comtonynewsday

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.