Hard to believe but crime is actually declining.

0:00 Speaker 1 Well with us. Today is Eric Gonzalez, the District Attorney of Brooklyn, to tell us about what do we look forward to? How can we make New York even better than it is? Da Gonzales, Happy New Year. We’re both alive, we’re here. Tell us how what do we have to do to make New York better? Because it’s getting a

0:23 you know, the reputation is getting tough.

0:28 Speaker 2 John, let me start off by wishing everyone a happy Sunday and a happy New Year. It’s you know, it’s something that I think about each and every day. I was anxious to get on and have this conversation with you because New Yorkers do not feel safe, and you know, quite honestly, you know, I heard the mayor and my

0:49 office put out a press release talking about the reduction in violence in Brooklyn, and I thought it was important to come on to the year and talk about the progress we’ve made in Brooklyn while addressing what the challenges continue to be and how we’re going to tackle these challenges to make New York City a safe place, a

1:09 place where people feel safe, and a place where tourists want to come and spend their money because they feel that they can be in the city without worrying about random crime.

1:20 Speaker 1 Because Diegenzalez, I can’t honestly tell you that I’m going to tell my daughter or my son take the subway. I just you know, I want. I think New Yorkers want to feel better about it. And in some of these criminals. So many people have been arrested, like ten, twenty, thirty, forty times. What do we do? Who is holding up?

1:48 Is it the State Assembly, the State Senate? Right?

1:52 Speaker 2 Well, we have to focus in on a couple of things. We have to focus in first and foremost on the random attacks that take place on our subway. I believe mental health is the biggest culprit of that. And then we have on some of our quality of life crimes, you know, the shoplisting, the continuous breaking in and stealing

2:18 of cause we have a recidivious problem people who get arrested, you know, over and over again, as.

2:26 Speaker 1 After retails drug stores in Manhattan at least I don’t know about Brooklyn have closed.

2:33 Speaker 2 Yeah, we’ve We’ve had a tremendous problem in shoplist I think the police department has done a good job in identifying a lot of the repeat offenders. I know in my office, We’ve really started to focus in on individuals who are the most prolific stealers, you know, the thieves who are really hurting New Yorkers and putting our small businesses,

2:56 you know, out of business. You know, I’ve wanted to also, you know, really just continue to focus in on the most violent of New Yorkers. You know, really small percentage, as you know, John half a one percent of New Yorkers commit about sixty percent of the violent crime. And so the strategy from my office has been to focus

3:21 in on those. Brooklyn had a record good year in terms of gun violence. I took office promising to bring gun violence down in Brooklyn, and you know, we’ve been able to do that working with the police Department and federal partners as well as some of our community activists who have been really pushing down gun violence. And I’ve

3:45 said for a while now, until we brought down gun violence in our city, it would be difficult for the police department to put the resources into quality of life cases. But finally, at least this year in Brooklyn, we saw gun violence beat pre pandemic levels, be twenty eighteen, be twenty nineteen in terms of shooting incidents. So a lot

4:08 more work to be done on this quality of life concerns about the shoplifting, But we’re not going to make real progress in terms of the random attacks on our subway system and other places until we deal with the mental health crisis that we have in our city.

4:25 Speaker 1 Yes, and some people, I guess, look the statistics some of the police commissioners have given me in the past that there’s three three hundred repeat criminals in the five boroughs, and if we took those three three hundred off the street, it would be a better city.

4:47 Speaker 2 I did a lot of challenges, as you know, and building cases against these individuals. The police department does the best it can. You know, they’re understaffed in a lot of ways. They down any offices. We are, but we’re making progress. I think we have to acknowledge, and I know it’s hard for a lot of New Yorkers because

5:10 we learn about every incident today through social media, through different apps on our phone. But we have to acknowledge that we’ve made a lot of progress over the last couple of years, especially since the pandemic. Pandemic I think opened the worst of New Yorkers, and since twenty twenty.

5:30 You know, New York City has gotten safer, but the perception of you know, how it feels like you said to get onto the train has not caught up with the numbers. And until that happens, which is why it’s so important for someone like myself, who you know, oversees a very large DA’s office and has seen the numbers

5:53 this year, to get on and to talk about the progress that has been made in the County of Brooklyn.

5:58 Speaker 1 Well, let’s continue to talk welcome every month and see what we can do to make New York City the great city it once was and to be again.

6:09 Speaker 2 Well, John, you know, we need everyone to do their peace. But I am proud of the work that we’re doing in the county. And as it’s the start of the year, I just want to wish everyone a safe year, especially for the women and men of the Police Department who are out there keeping us safe. So happy new year, John,

6:32 and I look forward to coming back and talking about what’s happening in the county. A lot of a lot of good things and also a lot of progress in the county and also holding people who are hurting individuals and places like cryptocurrency fraud and other kind of scams accountable, So a lot to talk about.

6:53 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, Gonzalez, and God bless you, God bless America.

7:00 Speaker 2 All right, John, Happy New Year,