Use of drive by members of the NYPD surged 20% final 12 months to 11,746 incidents — a document excessive for the reason that division started detailed record-keeping on the problem in 2016, in line with a police division report quietly posted on-line in current days.
Roughly half the incidents of drive occurred in response to crimes or violations in progress, which regularly lead to arrests. Incidents involving individuals in psychological or emotional misery and encounters with prisoners accounted for 14% and seven% of the overall, respectively, in line with the report.
The division recorded simply over 260,000 arrests final 12 months, the best whole since 2017, when there have been 286,230 arrests. That 12 months, nonetheless, there have been 7,369 incidents the place drive was used — practically 40% fewer than final 12 months.
Knowledge for the primary three quarters of 2025 present that the NYPD was on monitor as of September to surpass the 2024 use of drive numbers.
“The dramatic enhance in use-of-force incidents in 2024 is an alarming but predictable results of the Adams administration’s return to damaged home windows policing and aggressive ways,” stated Daniel Lambright, particular counsel for prison justice litigation on the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“That is the consequence of a mayor who has handled the NYPD because the default response to New Yorkers’ on a regular basis issues, whereas constantly shielding abusive officers from accountability,” he added. “We urge Mayor-elect Mamdani to interrupt from this reckless method and chart a brand new course.”
Lambright famous that the rise in drive incidents tracks with a document excessive variety of use-of-force complaints filed with the Civilian Criticism Evaluation Board.
Included within the incidents-of-force tally have been 14 deadly shootings by officers, the best quantity since not less than 2016. This got here regardless of a four-year low in intentional shootings by officers throughout a confrontation, at 28.
The NYPD report famous that just about 44,000 arrests in 2024 have been weapons-related, which was additionally the best whole for the reason that detailed record-keeping started.
One police officer, 31-year-old Jonathan Diller, was fatally shot in March 2024 throughout a site visitors cease that turned violent in Queens whereas six different officers have been shot and injured. Practically 6,000 members of the division sustained an damage throughout drive encounters final 12 months, of which 7% required remedy or admission to a hospital for an damage, in line with the report.
An NYPD spokesperson stated there’s no definitive motive for the 20% enhance in drive incidents, however pointed to will increase final 12 months in each arrests and summons enforcement.
“Extra enforcement encounters result in extra reportable makes use of of drive,” the spokesperson wrote in an announcement with out offering his or her title.
Mayor Eric Adams has overseen a police division that on numerous fronts has gotten extra aggressive, together with with a surge in cease and frisk encounters and the launch of a specialised Group Response Group, which was given an extended leash and a loosely-defined mandate.
Throughout Adams’ tenure the variety of main crimes shot up by over 20% in 2022 earlier than dipping by about 2% final 12 months and by practically 3% to date in 2025. Among the many main crimes, murders have declined considerably, as have shootings, whereas the variety of rapes and felony assaults have been climbing.
Adams has described his method as robust on crime, one thing he stated has been important to getting weapons off the road and contributing to this 12 months’s crime lower.
“I’ve all the time been robust on crime. From my days as a police officer, state senator, borough president, and now the mayor,” he stated at a marketing campaign occasion in August. “And the outcomes of that toughness have confirmed profitable: 23,000 unlawful weapons eliminated off our streets, lowest numbers of shootings and homicides within the first six months of this 12 months.”
The NYPD report confirmed prior reporting by THE CITY of 25 deaths in NYPD custody final 12 months and offered brief summaries of many of the 12 deaths stemming from police automotive chases.
Requested why the 2024 numbers have been launched so late in 2025, the division spokesperson stated releasing the info within the fourth quarter permits for a radical evaluate.
“There is no such thing as a specific due date that the division is certain by,” the spokesperson stated.
Correction: A earlier model of this text incorrectly acknowledged that the NYPD use of drive report failed to notice the loss of life of 15-year-old on an electrical bike throughout a police pursuit.
