Use of force by members of the NYPD surged 20% last year to 11,746 incidents — a record high since the department began detailed record-keeping on the issue in 2016, according to a police department report quietly posted online in recent days.
Roughly half the incidents of force occurred in response to crimes or violations in progress, which often result in arrests. Incidents involving people in mental or emotional distress and encounters with prisoners accounted for 14% and 7% of the total, respectively, according to the report.
The department recorded just over 260,000 arrests last year, the highest total since 2017, when there were 286,230 arrests. That year, however, there were 7,369 incidents where force was used — nearly 40% fewer than last year.
Data for the first three quarters of 2025 show that the NYPD was on track as of September to surpass the 2024 use of force numbers.
“The dramatic increase in use-of-force incidents in 2024 is an alarming yet predictable result of the Adams administration’s return to broken windows policing and aggressive tactics,” said Daniel Lambright, special counsel for criminal justice litigation at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
“This is the consequence of a mayor who has treated the NYPD as the default response to New Yorkers’ everyday problems, while consistently shielding abusive officers from accountability,” he added. “We urge Mayor-elect Mamdani to break from this reckless approach and chart a new course.”
Lambright noted that the increase in force incidents tracks with a record high number of use-of-force complaints filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board.
Included in the incidents-of-force tally were 14 fatal shootings by officers, the highest number since at least 2016. This came despite a four-year low in intentional shootings by officers during a confrontation, at 28.
The NYPD report noted that nearly 44,000 arrests in 2024 were weapons-related, which was also the highest total since the detailed record-keeping began.
One police officer, 31-year-old Jonathan Diller, was fatally shot in March 2024 during a traffic stop that turned violent in Queens while six other officers were shot and injured. Nearly 6,000 members of the department sustained an injury during force encounters last year, of which 7% required treatment or admission to a hospital for an injury, according to the report.
An NYPD spokesperson said there’s no definitive reason for the 20% increase in force incidents, but pointed to increases last year in both arrests and summons enforcement.
“More enforcement encounters lead to more reportable uses of force,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement without providing his or her name.
Mayor Eric Adams has overseen a police department that on a number of fronts has gotten more aggressive, including with a surge in stop and frisk encounters and the launch of a specialized Community Response Team, which was given a long leash and a loosely-defined mandate.
During Adams’ tenure the number of major crimes shot up by over 20% in 2022 before dipping by about 2% last year and by nearly 3% thus far in 2025. Among the major crimes, murders have declined significantly, as have shootings, while the number of rapes and felony assaults have been climbing.
Adams has described his approach as tough on crime, something he said has been essential to getting guns off the street and contributing to this year’s crime decrease.
“I’ve always been tough on crime. From my days as a police officer, state senator, borough president, and now the mayor,” he said at a campaign event in August. “And the results of that toughness have proven successful: 23,000 illegal guns removed off our streets, lowest numbers of shootings and homicides in the first six months of this year.”
The NYPD report confirmed prior reporting by THE CITY of 25 deaths in NYPD custody last year and provided short summaries of most of the 12 deaths stemming from police car chases.
Asked why the 2024 numbers were released so late in 2025, the department spokesperson said releasing the data in the fourth quarter allows for a thorough review.
“There is no explicit due date that the department is bound by,” the spokesperson said.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the NYPD use of force report failed to note the death of 15-year-old on an electric bike during a police pursuit.