Crime in NYC continues drop in Caban’s first year, though critics say that has come at a cost

A year after Police Commissioner Edward Caban was sworn in as the first Latino to head the NYPD, serious crime continues to drop iin the city — though some critics say that success has come at a cost.

Through July 14, there have been 195 murders in the city, 15% fewer than the 230 in the city last year at this time. And the 580 people shot is a 9% drop from the 638 last year, with police seizing more than 3,600 guns this year alone.

On top of that, subway crime, which spiked sharply during the pandemic, is down 15% since last June, with six straight months of double-digit decreases — though many New Yorkers remain worried about random attacks. The continuing problem of ghost cars — vehicles with fake or stolen plates — and unlicensed scooters and mopeds has been met with repeated enforcement operations that have led to the seizure of 5,200 vehicles.

“Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity, and essential to our efforts to making our city more livable and affordable for every New Yorker,” Mayor Adams said in a statement. “No one embodies this mission as well as Commissioner Caban…[He] and his team have led the charge against persistent public safety issues ranging from getting guns off our street, shutting down illegal cannabis shops, and cracking down on ghost cars, among many other challenges that detract from New Yorkers’ quality of life.”

Joseph Ayala, president of the NYPD Hispanic Society, a fraternal group, also applauded Caban for “increased diversity and inclusivity within the department, and improved community relations which have helped bridge the gap between law enforcement and the communities we serve.”

But Patrick Hendry, who heads the largest police union, the Police Benevolent Association, said even more could be accomplished if cops weren’t leaving the force in droves, in part because he says they are being worked to exhaustion. The NYPD spent more than $100 million more than its allotted overtime budget for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

“Police officers are overwhelmed with inhumane amounts of mandatory overtime and a crushing workload, while on patrol,” Hendry said.

Those stepped-up crime-fighting efforts have also come at a cost in the city’s neighborhoods, advocates say.

The top cop early on vowed the NYPD would police the streets constitutionally, noting that  that as a kid growing up in the Bronx, he and his brothers were stopped and frisked — “And I didn’t like how that felt.”

But Andrew Case, a supervising lawyer for Latino Justice for PRLDEF, a civil rights organization, said Caban has not kept his promise, clearing too many officers accused of misconduct and stepping up the department’s so-called “broken windows” policing tactics.

“There were great expectations but he’s been a terrible disappointment,” Case said. “Caban believes the solution to every problem is more and more aggressive policing. But it’s just someone with a hammer who thinks everything is a nail.”

Jennvine Wong, a supervising lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, said its clients, mostly young men of color, are experiencing more and more harassment on the street by police officers and that Caban is too soft on accused cops.

“It sends the message: “We are really not concerned about discipline,” Wong said. “There is this culture of impunity in the NYPD and Commissioner Caban has done nothing to rein it in.”

Caban, whose father, Juan Caban, is a retired Transit Police Department detective, on Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of his swearing-in with a post on X.

“I never imagined a young Puerto Rican kid from the Bronx would one day go from working a foot post in the 40 Precinct to the top cop in the NYPD,” Caban wrote.

The post was in line with Caban’s low-key style, which is in sharp contract to how other police executives under him, most notably Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry and Chief of Patrol John Chell, have used social media to push back against judges, politicians, advocates and reporters with whom they disagree..

Caban in March backed his brass, though he stopped short of saying he agrees with the tone of some of the postings.

“I can tell you that my executives are very passionate about defending their specific bureaus,” Caban said at the time.

The top cop declined an interview with the Daily News, with one police official saying one police official saying the News doesn’t report fairly on the Police Department and that “[the commissioner] feels you’re going to write what you want anyway, so why bother?”

Since taking office to replace the outgoing Keechant Sewell , Caban has granted few interviews, and he rarely takes off-topic questions at press conferences.

Last week, for instance, he posted on X a lengthy retort to a news account detailing misconduct allegations in which he did not punish the accused officers after taking the cases back from the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

The next day, Caban left a crime statistics press conference before questions on other issues were entertained, leaving two deputy commissioners to answer questions about the misconduct cases.

“That’s his style,” said a police source, speaking in Caban’s defense “His response was documented on social media. He said what he had to say. He doesn’t like giving interviews.”