A violent crime wave has been reported in various cities across the United States over the course of this year.
One New York City Police insider is now revealing that detectives are currently struggling to keep up with the increasing caseload.
Fewer detectives on the beat
According to Fox News, the president of the city’s Detectives’ Endowment Association offered a grim outlook on the NYPD’s ability to respond to criminal complaints.
Paul DiGiacomo asserted that city detectives are already dealing with problems including staffing shortages. Twenty years ago, he noted that the city had about 7,200 detectives — or roughly 2,000 more than it has today.
As a result, he lamented the fact that detectives are sometimes left to deal with as many as 100 cases at a time. The reduction in manpower is only exacerbated by a rising crime rate.
According to NYPD data, gun violence and murder have ticked upward in recent years with illegal firearm possession fueling much of that trend. As it stands, there is no sign that things are beginning to move in a more positive direction.
Furthermore, DiGiacomo asserted that at least some of the current problems are rooted in the anti-police movement that blossomed nationwide after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last year.
“Days that you don’t want to see”
Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council voted to slash the police budget by about $1 billion, which resulted in the disbanding of a plainclothes anti-crime unit, the delay of cadet classes, and a decrease in overtime. As a result, morale within the agency has reportedly seen a significant drop.
“It’s the first time in history that you had all three entities of government turn their backs on the police — and I mean on a city level, state level, and federal level,” DiGiacomo said.
He went on to opine that the attacks on law enforcement might not be “as vocal” today but “it’s still out there.”
As for his predictions about the future, DiGiacomo said much of it depends on the decisions being made by the mayor and other city leaders.
“If the next mayor, whoever it may be, doesn’t fix the crime epidemic in the city of New York, the economic machine of the city will come to a halt, and the city will fall,” he concluded. “It’ll go back to days that you don’t want to see, and that we haven’t seen in many, many years.”
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