NYPD reports one of the safest Labor Day weekends on record

New York City enjoyed one of the safest Labor Day weekends on record this year, according to city officials.

Despite the large crowds attending the U.S. Open Tennis Championships, the Electric Zoo music festival and West Indian Day Parade, major crime was down 9% last weekend compared to the same period last year, Mayor Eric Adams said.

“The approach was clear: How do we celebrate without allowing people to be harmed by those who want to bring violence in this city?” Adams said.

The mayor continued, “Not only was this past weekend a historic success, one most recent crime stat shows that we are making significant progress on lowering crime overall.”

There were four shooting incidents in Brooklyn last weekend, according to NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, a dramatic decrease from nine homicides and 29 shooting victims in 2021.

The NYPD announced last week that it would use drones to monitor Labor Day festivities, sending images to a control operations unit at police headquarters. The data helped field commanders determine how many officers to send to a scene, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said.

The technology came in handy last weekend when more than 88,000 people crammed into the Electric Zoo festival venue on Randall’s Island. The two-day event hit dangerous levels of overcapacity due to thousands of fake ticket and wristband sales, according to Chell.

Chell said police used drones to respond quickly to 911 calls about overcrowding, leaving this year’s Electric Zoo festival safer than last with 41% fewer crimes and 175% more arrests.

“It would have been impossible to get a full scope on the size of the crowd if we didn’t have the technology to do so,” Adams said.

“It costs $1,700 to fill up a helicopter that is used in situations like this. It costs 17 cents to fly a drone,” he continued. “That’s just good use of New York tax dollars.”