This piece is the second in a series of deep dives that will take you through THE CITY’s impact and values, give you a behind-the-scenes look at our newsroom, and introduce you to our reporters.
We hope this series will move you to contribute to our year-end fundraising campaign. Reader donations make THE CITY’s work possible: we couldn’t do it without you.
You may have noticed the change on your streets in your neighborhood: police car chases are up 600% in 2023, and criminal summonses have increased fivefold.
That’s all due to new policies at the NYPD — policies that have resulted in pedestrian and motorist deaths, and in the rollback of landmark policing reforms passed in the 2016 Criminal Justice Reform Act.
Here at THE CITY, we monitor these policy changes closely so our readers can be informed. But we go deeper than that, too, and dig into NYPD’s own data to uncover larger patterns and problems.
For example, we found that more than as criminal summonses have surged, over 90% of summonses where race was noted went to Black and Hispanic people. And often, NYPD doesn’t specify why: they just file the summons under “law enforcement reason.” This exemption allows officers to not specify the reason for issuing a criminal ticket instead of a civil one.
This lack of police transparency is exactly why New Yorkers need local journalism. And THE CITY has the track record to show for it: our reporting on NYPD has informed CCRB investigations, sparked public outcry for reforms, and led directly to disciplinary charges against NYC’s top uniformed cop.
But this work isn’t easy — and we need your support to do it. Donate today to our year-end campaign today, and help us drive impact around NYPD.
