It was originally reported at the end of December that the NYPD had stopped policing unless absolutely necessary as part of a misguided protest against Mayor Bill de Blasio. That claim was supported by statistics. While there's no resolution in sight for that rift, it appears as though the police department is back to doing work.
According to the New York Daily News, there was a noticeable uptick in the number of arrests made and summonses issued in the city over the past week:
The number of summonses written by the NYPD nearly tripled in the past week and arrests were up nearly 50%, another sign that the slowdown that followed the murders of two Brooklyn cops has abated.
For the seven days ending Sunday, 32,049 summonses — for parking, traffic and criminal infractions — were written citywide.
That’s far less than the 50,381 written during the same period last year.
But it is 159% higher than the 12,365 from the week ending Jan. 11.
Police also made 6,910 arrests, according to the latest CompStat book released by the NYPD Monday.
The initial slowdown was reportedly triggered by the police department's (well, some within the police department's) feelings that de Blasio didn't support them, because he voiced empathy for Eric Garner supporters. Some officers have demanded an apology from de Blasio; he's refused to do so. NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton met with the city's police unions earlier this month in an attempt to resolve this situation, but that didn't go as planned.
While animosity may linger, at least New York's finest are, for the most part, back to doing their jobs with the zeal they're known for.
[via New York Daily News]
