At Least 26 New Yorkers Shot in Violent 4th of July Weekend

     NYPD officers are searching for suspects in 12 separate shootings that took place across New York City amidst Fourth on July celebrations.

     Unbelievably, a total of 26 people were shot between 12am on Friday and 12am Monday morning, according to NYPD data, which does not include any shootings that took place between midnight last night and 9 am this morning.

     With more than 820 shootings already recorded in New York City so far this year, New Yorkers continue to wonder how residents and visitors to the city can feel safer.

      The NYPD and city need to use tools like CompStat and other technology to bring the number of shootings down, said Terence Monahan, the senior advisor for recovery and safety planning and the former chief of department with the NYPD, on Pix11.

     After shifting $1 billion away from the NYPD last summer, last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council announced that they have increased the budget of the NYPD by $200 million for the fiscal year of 2022, precisely to enhance the department’s information technology (IT) resources.

     In addition to anti-gun violence initiatives, “A big piece of the increase [in the NYPD’s budget] is IT needs,” the Mayor de Blasio said last week. “We want to have the department be effective. We needed better technology to do it.

    Monahan also said that an increased police presence is paramount.

     “We need to deal with that perception,” Monahan said of the fears of New Yorkers and tourists that the city is rife with crime. “People need to feel safe. I can quote numbers to you all day long, it’s no good if people don’t feel safe.

     “We need to make sure that as people come back into Times Square, they see cops on every corner. That they see them as they get on the subway system.

     “The more cops you see, the more safety you have and the more prone people are to come back into the city.”