How Covid Inmate Releases Contributes to NYC’s Crime Spike

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Recent reports from the New York City Police department tell of a sudden, staggering increase in violence and crime. The city has seen high numbers of shootings and injuries, as officials warn these incidents point to a “storm on the horizon” that warrants immediate change.

In the last week alone (June 15-June 22), an estimated 73 people were wounded in 53 shootings across the city, as compared to only 14 injured individuals and 12 incidents in the same period last year.  On Saturday alone, two dozen shootings occurred.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea points to the sudden rise in shootings as an indicator of a much larger problem. “We had a hundred shootings in May – first time we hit that number in probably five years. We are trending up before COVID hit on shooting.”

Shea points to details surrounding the crime, including the presence of marijuana, alcohol, and dice games at “nearly every shooting”. He emphasizes the importance of having “hard conversations” discussing quality of life issues, adding “we cannot step away from quality of life policing. We cannot expect the police to go out there and fix laws that are broken. We cannot stop our way out of this problem. We need bad people held accountable and right now we have a lack of accountability.”

The recent release of inmates from federal prisons due to COVID-19 only exacerbates the issue.  District attorneys in Brooklyn and New York took measures as early as mid-March to reduce jail admissions by releasing people charged with non-violent offenses, and began to stop actively prosecuting low-level, non-violent offenses.

At the end of March, New York Governor Cuomo announced that up to 1,100 inmates in jails and prisons across the state could be released with community supervision. As of June 8th, the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision reported that 898 individuals were released in light of COVID-19.

Michael Lipetri, NYPD’s Chief of Crime Control Strategies, reports that an estimated 17 percent of shooting cases this year involved a parolee as either the shooter or the victim. He adds “We’ve never seen a higher percentage of parolee-involved incidents with shootings since we’ve been tracking it in ’05.”

The virus poses issues with effectively prosecuting these criminals as well. Mr. Lipetri told the New York Post last week that gun arrests have been stalled because courts have been closed as a result of the pandemic.

Over 1,000 people indicted on a gun-possession charge continue to walk freely around New York City, while an addition 800 have been charged with criminal possession of a weapon but have not yet been formally indicted.