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Clearance rates, response times, resource deployment. Do we solve crimes effectively?
Overall and by crime type
Q1 2024 - Q2 2025 (18 months) clearance rates by crime type show massive borough disparities:
By crime type
Borough-level shows massive variation. Precinct-level would identify best practices from high performers and problems in low performers. Essential for accountability.
Precinct-level clearance rates by crime type
FOIL request: "Clearance rates by precinct, crime type, and quarter for 2020-2025"
Average days from report to clearance
Speed matters for justice and deterrence. Fast clearances may indicate good detective work or easy cases. Slow clearances may show resource constraints.
Case-level data with report date and clearance date
FOIL request: "Average days to clearance by crime type and precinct for 2020-2025"
3-5 year trends in clearance rates
We have 12 years of overtime data showing costs rising dramatically (119% increase under Adams). We now have 18 months of clearance data (Q1 2024 - Q2 2025), but this is insufficient to assess multi-year trends. NYPD does not publicly share historical clearance data beyond this period.
NYC vs LA, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia
If comparable cities solve more crimes with fewer resources, we should learn from them. If we perform better, we should celebrate and share best practices.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data + comparable city data
Accessible via FBI UCR database - requires analysis and compilation
NYC vs London, Tokyo, Toronto
Global context matters. International cities face similar challenges. Learning from successful international models could dramatically improve NYC performance.
International police performance data
Requires compilation from London Met, Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Toronto Police Service annual reports
What % of arrests lead to convictions?
Arrests mean nothing if cases are dismissed. Conviction rates reveal arrest quality and prosecutorial effectiveness. Low conviction rates = wasted police resources + wrongful arrests.
Conviction data from NYC District Attorneys
FOIL requests to Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island DA offices: "Conviction rates by crime type and originating precinct for 2020-2025"
Where are we failing most?
Over 18 months (Q1 2024 - Q2 2025), property crimes show the worst clearance rates:
These property crimes have abysmal clearance rates citywide, meaning the vast majority go unsolved.
Compared to peer cities
NYC has among the HIGHEST police staffing levels globally, exceeding most major international cities:
Key Takeaways:
NYC's police-to-population ratio is 2.4-2.6x HIGHER than Toronto and 1.3x higher than Tokyo. Despite this heavy staffing, NYC has:
Heavy staffing has NOT translated to better performance. This suggests systemic inefficiency rather than under-resourcing.
Officers per capita by precinct
We have borough-level data: Manhattan 34,818 employees, Brooklyn 12,186, Queens 10,575, Bronx 6,638, Staten Island 1,684. But no precinct-level breakdown or per-capita calculations.
% time on patrol, response, paperwork, court, training
If most time is spent on paperwork rather than policing, that is a management failure. Understanding time allocation is essential for efficiency improvements.
Time tracking data or activity logs
FOIL request: "Sample time allocation study or activity logs showing officer time breakdown by duty type"
Detective allocation by crime type
Based on available public information, NYPD does not publish a detailed breakdown of detective assignments by specific crime type (e.g., homicide, robbery, burglary). This is internal operational data that changes frequently based on caseload and crime trends.
However, here's what can be pieced together from organizational structure, budget documents, and investigative reporting:
Approximate Detective Allocation Overview
The NYPD Detective Bureau employs roughly 5,000–6,000 detectives citywide. They are organized hierarchically:
1. Borough Detective Commands (Majority of Detectives)
Each borough has a Detective Command with squads dedicated to major felony categories. Allocation is roughly proportional to crime volume:
Within each borough command, detectives are assigned to squad types (approximate distributions):
2. Citywide Specialized Units
These pull detectives from boroughs:
Why Precise Numbers Are Unavailable:
1. No Public Dataset: NYC Open Data has no dataset for detective assignments by unit 2. Fluid Assignments: Detectives can be reassigned weekly based on crime spikes (e.g., a robbery surge may pull detectives from other squads) 3. Union & Privacy: The Detectives' Endowment Association negotiates staffing levels, but doesn't publish unit-level breakdowns 4. Operational Security: Detailed staffing could reveal investigative capacity and vulnerabilities
Best Alternative Sources:
Detective Bureau Personnel Assignment Report showing current detective assignments by crime type squad (homicide, robbery, burglary, SVU, etc.) broken down by borough
FOIL request: "Detective Bureau Personnel Assignment Report or equivalent document showing current detective assignments by crime type squad (homicide, robbery, burglary, grand larceny, special victims, assault, etc.) broken down by borough for 2024-2025. If no such report exists, request Detective Bureau organizational charts and staffing rosters showing squad assignments."
By crime type and precinct
High caseloads explain low clearance rates. Low caseloads with low clearance rates indicate productivity problems. Essential metric for management.
Total cases by type + detective allocations
FOIL request: "Average caseload per detective by crime type and precinct/borough for 2020-2025"
Distribution of cases cleared per detective
If some detectives clear 10x more cases, we should study them and train others. If productivity is uniform but low, it is a systemic problem.
Individual detective clearance data (anonymized)
FOIL request: "Distribution of cases cleared per detective (anonymized) by unit and borough"
By precinct and priority level
NYPD response times have DETERIORATED dramatically over 12 years (2013-2024):
This deterioration occurred despite a 93% increase in overtime spending over the same period.
Response time equity
If wealthy neighborhoods get faster responses than poor neighborhoods, that is a civil rights issue. Response equity is fundamental fairness.
Response time data by precinct/neighborhood
Same FOIL as Q15
If targets exist
If NYPD has response time targets, are they meeting them? If they do not have targets, why not?
Response time targets (if they exist) + actual response data
FOIL request: "NYPD response time targets/standards and % of calls meeting those standards by precinct"
Volume and trends
NYPD incident volume has been STABLE from 2014-2024, averaging 1.4-1.5 million incidents per year:
The critical finding: despite relatively stable demand, response times got 36.6% SLOWER (2013-2024) while overtime spending increased 119%. This proves the performance decline is NOT due to overwhelming demand — it's operational failure.
Mental health, noise complaints, etc.
Year-over-year data (2014-2024) shows 68.9% of NYPD incidents are NON-EMERGENCY.
Top call types by volume:
True emergencies (Critical + Serious incidents) represent only 21.0% of volume on average. Interestingly, emergency incidents increased from 17.1% (2014) to 23.7% (2024), suggesting deteriorating public safety despite massive resource increases.