NYC lawmakers probing a 25% felony surge since 2019 grill NYPD brass over claims cops refuse crime reports

A Bronx lawmaker is calling police commanders to City Hall over persistent crime levels and allegations of officers refusing crime reports, officials announced.

Council Member Oswald Feliz, a Bronx Democrat, chairs the New York City Council Committee on Public Safety.

Lawmakers scheduled an oversight hearing for Wednesday to question department brass over crime figures that have not returned to pre-pandemic benchmarks, according to council records.

The hearing is also set to address accounts of officers allegedly refusing to take complaint reports from victims, officials said.

Felony assaults are among the offenses slated for scrutiny during the session, according to hearing plans.

The committee chairman scheduled the hearing “to take a hard look at crime categories that require attention,” Feliz said in a statement.

“We’ve made progress on many issues, including shootings and murders, but when we look at crime statistics from 2019, it is clear there is still significant room for progress,” Feliz said.

Department statistics show major felonies overall dropped nearly 6 percent year-over-year, police records indicate. But those same numbers remain up nearly 25 percent compared to the identical time frame in 2019, Feliz said.

“We want to better understand the challenges and discuss what more can be done to address them effectively,” the Bronx Democrat said.

The public safety committee plans to make the comprehensive review an annual tradition, Feliz said.

“Our goal is to have a hearing like this at the end of every year,” he said.

Lawmakers are preparing for an hourslong hearing inside City Hall with top-ranking department brass, council staff said. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is notably not scheduled to appear, according to hearing plans.

The administration of Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also not expected to send representatives from the mayoral Office of Community Safety, officials said.

The police department has repeatedly pointed to record drops in murders and shootings under Mamdani and former Mayor Eric Adams, records show. The agency seldom provides comparisons to pre-pandemic levels, when the city recorded historic low crime figures, according to officials.

A group of council members also intends to question commanders about accusations that officers discouraged residents from filing criminal complaints, sources said.

Lawmakers plan to highlight a viral social media video posted earlier this week, officials said.

A person in the recording claimed to have been harassed and nearly attacked in Washington Square Park, according to the video post.

The user claimed responding officers brushed off the incident, allegedly telling him, “Welcome to NYC, brotherz.”

“Every day New Yorkers are told crime is down, but that’s not what many of my constituents are seeing and feeling on their streets,” Councilmember Joann Ariola said.

“If the numbers say one thing and New Yorkers are experiencing another, we need to understand why, and that’s what I intend to find out during this oversight hearing,” the Queens Republican said.

Council members are planning to present several irate residents who reported experiencing similar treatment from officers, sources said. Lawmakers will ask police commanders to answer directly for those specific accounts, according to officials.

Ahead of the hearing, Councilman Phil Wong called for the department to make public the results of internal audits into how officers process complaints, according to a statement.

The Queens Democrat said the agency must identify every instance where criminal complaints should have been filed but were not, Wong said.

“When crime truly goes down, our police officers deserve the credit,” Wong said in a statement.

“But the numbers only mean something if every crime is reported and reported accurately,” the lawmaker said.