NYPD: Arrests getting "back to normal" after suspected slowdown
NEW YORK - New York Police Commissioner William Bratton says that arrests in the city are getting "back to normal levels" after a dramatic decrease in arrests following the deadly ambush of two patrolmen in December.
Bratton, citing new statistics, said Monday that crime is trending down and arrest activity is trending up after an apparent work slowdown by disgruntled officers.
"Officers are going back to work and we're seeing improvement each passing day," Bratton said. "Crime continues to go down."
Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were gunned down last month by a mentally unstable man who said online that he would kill two "pigs" in retaliation for the police-involved deaths of Eric Garner and other black men. The head of New York City's police union said officers felt "thrown under the bus" by the mayor after he voiced support for protests over the police killings.
Bratton said Monday that police unions had been cooperative in recent meetings with the NYPD.
Arrests were down 37 percent from the same period last year but officials said that was a dramatic increase from last week. Tickets for traffic and parking violations also increased.
Meanwhile, officials said the NYPD was being extra vigilant after the terrorist attack in Paris and reports of a renewed threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said that an ISIS spokesman posted a propaganda video calling for the killing of "intelligence officers, police officers, soldiers, and civilians" in the United States.
Following the latest threat, an advisory was issued to NYPD officers urging caution and awareness.
"As you may recall, there was a similar threat, a Twitter threat, back in September, and shortly thereafter there were a number of attacks in Canada, Australia, also an attack here -- an ax-wielding individual attacked four of our officers," Bratton said Monday on "CBS This Morning."