CIVIC CENTER — Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday he and Mayor Bill de Blasio will announce a new plan to address this year's 20 percent uptick in slashings and stabbings.
Bratton talked about the plan at a City Hall budget hearing after City Council members questioned him over the recent spike in slashings, as well as violence at city homeless shelters.
"Stabbings, slashings, cuttings, we are doing a lot more analysis, as we did with the shootings [in the early 90s]," Bratton said after giving his testimony. "We will be in a position, I think, to over time begin to have a much more positive impact on that issue."
Bratton said slashings were up 153 incidents so far this year compared to the same period in 2015, and the NYPD has already deployed more officers within the subway system to try to address the problem and will work to identify trends causing the increase.
“A lot of this is fueled by emotion, disturbances, disputes, family situations," Bratton said during his testimony, adding that The Bronx has seen the biggest increase in slashings and stabbings.
Chief of Patrol Services Carlos Gomez also testified that the department would look at how it could improve the selection and training of shelter security.
But Bratton later added that the NYPD would not divert any of its officers to the city's shelter system.
"I have no intention of taking over security for these homeless shelters," the commissioner said.
There have been a number of fatal attacks in shelters this year, including an abusive boyfriend who stabbed his girlfriend and two of her children to death in a Staten Island hotel shelter.
De Blasio's $82.1 billion city budget included additional spending on NYPD technology, including $3 million to expand the department's ShotSpotter gunshot detection program to all five boroughs.
The mayor and City Council also struck a deal last summer to give the NYPD 1,300 additional officers, including more counter terrorism police.
The mayor and commissioner are expected to divulge specifics about the plan to reduce slashing and stabbing incidents at One Police Plaza Tuesday morning.
