According to recently released data [pdf], shootings that involved the NYPD were at an all-time-low in 2010, with officers firing their weapons 92 times total, killing 8 and wounding 16. It's the lowest amount of shootings since the department began keeping the numbers in 1971. "The improvement is due to police training, restraint, and our success in reducing crime over all," Commissioner Ray Kelly told NY1. To put the numbers in perspective, 40 years ago, shootings involving the NYPD killed 93 people and injured 221 others.
However, last month it was reported that overall shootings were up by 154% from the same period in 2010, and the case of Denise Gay—in which a hail of 73 NYPD bullets likely played a role in her senseless death—isn't going to help the department's statistics. It also should be noted that a "firearms discharge" is defined as, "An incident in which an officer of the New York City Police Department discharges any firearm, or when a firearm belonging to an offi‐
cer of the New York City Police Department is discharged."
So a handful of police officers shooting 73 bullets still only accounts for a handful of recorded discharges. The one statistic that was up in 2010? The number of bullets fired, with a total of 368, up rom 297 in 2009. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne explained the jump by noting that there were "two protracted gun battles."
