Mayor Adams says he tours subways ‘every other night’
Mayor Eric Adams said Monday that he is in “constant contact” with Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, declaring he is “fully confident” the city’s top cop will be able to reduce the city’s ever-increasing crime.
During an unrelated press conference, Adams also told reporters he tours the subway system “just about every other night.”
“It’s no secret to anyone that, just about every other night, I’m in the subway system. Because if you don’t inspect what you expect, it’s all suspect,” he quipped outside City Hall in response to a question from The Post on how he stays updated on subway homelessness and violent crime.
Adams explained that, along with conversations with the commissioner to start his day, he speaks every Sunday with Sewell about adjusting public safety strategies
“The commissioner speaks with me every morning. Every morning, she updates our team, [and] she speaks with me,” the mayor said. “Then, on the weekend, Sunday, the commissioner and I have a briefing of new things we want to do, how we are going to shift things around. We are in constant contact.
“We know public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity, we’re zeroed in on it, and we’re focused.”
NYPD data released last week revealed that New York City gun violence dropped last month compared to April 2021 — but the number of shootings was still nearly double pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, and major crimes were up 34.2% overall.
Adams heaped praise on Sewell, the department’s first female commissioner, and vowed she will be commended for successfully leading his administration’s efforts to “get crime under control.”
“The commissioner and I, we talk about it all the time, and we continue to pivot and shift and adjust. And I cannot thank her enough for just her vision on how we’re going to get crime under control, and we are,” he gushed. “I’m fully confident that we are, and New Yorkers are going to understand they made the right decision on their mayor, and the right decision that I made in picking our police commissioner.”
Also Monday, Adams revealed that he will make an announcement in the coming days related to data showing the proportion of crimes committed by a small minority of New Yorkers.
“We’re going to be rolling something out this week that’s just mind boggling, how many crimes a small number of people are committing. I don’t think New Yorkers [are] really connecting the dots,” he said.
The retired NYPD captain, as he’s argued in the past, insisted cops are effectively patrolling five boroughs but lamented a slow-moving and overly lenient court system has caused some New Yorkers to believe they won’t be punished for their illegal activity.
“The police department is doing its job. The arrests are up, the number of people who are committing grand larceny, grand larceny of autos, shootings, is just a small pocket of people. But the system is bottlenecked in the court system,” Adams explained. “People don’t feel as though there will be reprisals for their actions in the city.”
Adams — who instituted a tweaked version of the plainclothes anti-crime unit disbanded in 2020 — went on to tout the more than 2,500 illegal firearms cops have removed from the streets since he took office Jan 1.
“So what we’re doing to the police department is just unfair. Putting your lives on the line to stop dangerous people, yet there’s no support in place to partner with us to deal with those dangerous people,” he said. “We are doing our jobs.”
The mayor’s comments come days after his delayed return from a trip to Los Angeles, where Adams participated in a technology-related conference as a poll revealed a poll revealed New York City voters have soared on him over handling of crime, homelessness and his overall performance.
In a recent interview, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani told The Post that Adams “hasn’t done a damn thing,” and ripped him for attending glitzy, star-studded events like the Met Gala.
