NEW YORK — Murders are down, but traffic deaths are up and emergency teams are taking longer to respond to calls, according to the city’s annual management report, released Monday by Mayor Adams.

The report on the 2024 fiscal year also found SNAP application time is improving and minor summonses for things like public urinating and public drinking continue to skyrocket as the NYPD puts more officers on the streets and pays out record overtime.

The 558-page report, mandated under the City Charter, includes troves of detailed data showing how every city agency measures up.

“We have over 2000 different indicators, so you always find one or two that we’re not where we want to be,” Adams said at a press conference announcing the report’s release Monday. “But we’re moving forward. But we’re very clear on those big issues that are important, we want to make sure that we highlight them.”

Here’s what you need to know about how the city is doing:

Murders down, response times up

Emergency response times were up, with an average of 15 minutes and 23 seconds — up from around 14 minutes last year and about 11 minutes in fiscal year 2020. It now takes on average over 9 minutes to get a police response to the most serious crimes, like shootings and assaults, after calling 911.

“Most of this increase is driven by just 19 percent of precincts, each with major thoroughfare access points,” the report says.

The report pointed to an increased NYPD presence across several fronts.

Enforcement of minor summonses like fare evasion and open container law violations have increased by 34% since last fiscal year, totaling 180,000, and by 210% since three years prior, before Adams took office. Summonses for drinking in parks and on stoops in particular rose by 13,000 since last year and by a whopping nearly 57,000 since fiscal year 2021.

Major felony crimes are slightly down since last year, largely driven by a 15% decrease in murders and an 18% decrease in shootings, but still up overall from pre-Covid — and grand larceny auto, robbery and felony crime in housing developments all increased from the year before.

The stepped-up police presence across the city has come at a cost, with the NYPD paying out record overtime. This year, the number broke $1 billion for the first time.

“The NYPD is focusing relentlessly on how to do better protecting and serving people,” Chauncey Parker, assistant deputy mayor for public safety, said on Monday in response to a question about the increased response times. “So that’s all part of by relentlessly following up and using creative, imaginative, evidence-based strategies that are going to drive that number.”

At the same time, civilian complaints against members of the NYPD have ticked upward every year in the Adams administration, this past year reaching 5,644.

Dangerous streets

Total traffic fatalities have hit their highest since pre-Covid, with 275 deaths in fiscal year 2024.

According to the report, the increase was driven by a 53% uptick in moped deaths, with bicyclist fatalities, including e-bikes, down this year. The Department of Transportation also added 64 miles of bike lanes, 33 miles of which were protected.

Affordable housing ticks up

Housing showed modest signs of improvement, with the number of new affordable projects reached over 25,200, a thousand more than the year prior.

Pre-K vacancies drop, student absenteeism high

The total number of unfilled seats in 3-k programs — an issue that has been a sharp issue of debate — decreased by 10%.

Twenty-five percent more families signed up for subsidized child care than last year, and over 41,000 applications, for a 291% increase from the previous year, were submitted for child care assistance through MyCity.

But chronic absentee numbers in schools remain high and it is looking increasingly unlikely the city will be able to meet an incoming class size cap.

Average class sizes stayed largely the same in the higher grades and teacher hiring has been slow, with the workforce increasing by less than 1%. The Department of Education has estimated they need around 10,000 to 12,000 more teachers to meet new lower class size requirements.

More trees, bathrooms

A Sanitation task force aimed at cleaning unkempt city properties across the five boroughs cleaned 30% more locations than the last fiscal year, and the Parks Department planted over 42,000 trees, up from 31,000 last year.

Two percent more public restrooms were in service than last year, and 89% of parks overall were rated “acceptable.”

However, despite a 5% increase in vacant lot cleaning requests compared to the previous fiscal year, 63% fewer lots were cleaned citywide. This decrease, the report says, is the result of city budget cuts that have since been partly restored.

SNAP applications being processed faster

Just 65% of SNAP applications and 42% of cash assistance applications were processed on time — down from 92% pre-Covid for cash assistance applications.

“We’re not where we want to be, but we have improved in both of our cash applications,” Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom said. “And it’s still, the applications that we’re getting in are still pretty historically high. And we’re also doing better in our SNAP applications, too. So much improved. … We will definitely make more progress.”

The Human Resources Administration this past fiscal year began to work through backlogs from pandemic-related recertification waivers and higher numbers of applications, according to the report.

Adams, whose administration is embroiled in several federal investigations and has seen two high-profile resignations in the past week, rejected suggestions during a Monday press conference that the increased fanfare this year for the report — which is typically released more quietly — was intended as a distraction from the scandals.

“We have to write our own narrative,” Adams said. “Because if we don’t show the success and we don’t have a person who has benefited from what we’re doing, it just doesn’t seem to get covered. And so we don’t want to distract. We want to have folks pay attention of how successful this administration has been.

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