STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island experienced a historic year of reduced crime in 2025, according to NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger, Staten Island’s borough commander.
“We had a really successful year in overall crime and most notably, historic reduction in violence,” Eger said.
The borough ended 2025 with a 0.7% decrease in overall crime.
However, the most notable reductions were arguably experienced in violence. There was a 63% reduction in murders, shootings were down 26.7% and confirmed shots fired cases were down 4% last year.
Eger also noted that burglaries were down 6.3% in 2025.
Eger credited Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Chief of Department Michael LiPetri for providing Staten Island with the resources and foundational strategies that led to the department’s success on the borough.
Applying precision policing to reduce violence
In addition to resources, the assistant chief shared that “precision policing” played a large role driving down these crime numbers.
As part of this strategy, the Chief of Department previously designated violence zones across the city. Staten Island had four such zones, all of which were in the 120th Precinct, according to Eger. These zones were identified as Park Hill, Stapleton, West Brighton and the Jersey Street area.
“We deploy officers to these violence zones most of the day and during the hours that these shootings and shots fired incidents and other violent crimes occur,” Eger explained.
As part of the NYPD’s response, officers are deployed on footposts and in high-visibility radio motor patrol vehicles.
In addition to these violence zones, the NYPD has identified areas throughout the borough where violence had occurred and subsequently deployed officers in response.
“So the precision policing of putting officers in the areas they need to be during the hours of the day that they need to be there has really, really led to this reduction, this historic reduction in violence. And we’re going to continue that now that we’re in 2026,” Eger told the Advance/SILive.com.
The borough commander also made a point to personally thank the NYPD’s “partners” in the Richmond County District Attorney’s office for making a significant difference in driving down violent crime figures.
“We wouldn’t see this reduction in violence without the prosecution,” she said.
A large reduction in grand larceny auto cases
Another significant decrease was in grand larceny auto cases, which the assistant chief said dropped 28% in 2025. Over the last two years, these grand larceny auto cases have dropped 46%.
“And I can really attribute that to the initiative put in place by our former borough commander, Chief [Joseph] Gulotta,” said Eger.
She explained that Gulotta put in place an initiative where members of Patrol Borough Staten Island track grand larceny auto cases citywide, as these vehicles often travel to other boroughs and New Jersey.
“So our GLA [grand larceny auto] desk tracks every stolen vehicle in the city and that leads to a multitude of apprehensions and certainly sends a message that GLAs are not tolerated in Staten Island and we have that action put into place to apprehend these perpetrators,” added Eger.
As part of this crackdown, the NYPD works collaboratively with other agencies in New Jersey and New York to “identify issues related to the goings on with the bridges.”
Retail theft
Eger also spoke on the continued efforts to combat retail theft on Staten Island.
Overall grand larceny increased 0.7% and retail theft increased 0.3% in 2025. However, Eger noted that there was a 35% reduction in retail crime during the holiday season of 2025.
Retail crime was up 55% earlier in the year.
NYPD Assistant Chief Melissa Eger (right), the Staten Island borough commander, along with other members of the NYPD visited the Staten Island Mall in New Springville to speak with shopkeepers about the department’s effort to reduce retail theft and overall crime in the mall during the holiday shopping season on Dec. 15, 2025.(Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence)
“Through the year, through our retail initiatives, we’ve really driven that increase down and we’re going to continue to do so in 2026,” Eger added.
In response to the prior increase in retail theft, NYPD Staten Island created a designated retail theft team composed of officers from each of the borough’s precincts who have extensive knowledge of each precinct’s retail communities. Officers have subsequently strengthened their partnership with retail workers and their asset protection officers.
This retail theft team was responsible for effecting 407 retail-related arrests in 2025.
Year-to-date, the NYPD has identified over 100 shoplifting recidivists in 2025. Of those cases, bail was set in 62% of them. Of these recidivists, 29% of them were incarcerated as of Jan. 9.
Quality of Life on Staten Island
The borough commander further informed the Advance/SILive.com of the effectiveness of the “Q-teams” introduced by Tisch in 2025.
These teams focus on quality-of-life issues and consist of specially-trained officers from various NYPD roles, including neighborhood coordination officers, youth coordination officers and traffic safety officers. Each team operates at the precinct level under a Quality of Life Division sergeant and focuses on non-emergency complaints like abandoned vehicles, illegal scooters and late-night noise disturbances.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch speaks at a presser along with Mayor Eric Adams announcing the NYPD’s new Quality of Life Division at the Park Hill Houses in Clifton on Monday, Aug. 18, 2025.(Advance/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)
The teams were first deployed on Staten Island in August 2025. Across the borough there are nearly 60 uniformed members who address complaints brought forth by the community through meetings, 311 and 911.
These teams have conducted over 100 quality-of-life operations including homeless outreach, retail theft operations, graffiti cleanups, towing operations and operations addressing noise and traffic issues, Eger said.
Since August 2025, the quality of life teams responded to 42% of 311 service requests on Staten Island.
Areas of concern for 2026
While Eger touted the successes of the department, she also noted crimes which would become a focus for the borough in the year ahead.
The focus for the NYPD on Staten Island “pretty much mirrors what the city will focus on as well.”
A major area of concern will be the increase in felony assaults, which are largely driven by domestic violence. In 2025, 48% of these assaults were domestic in nature, according to Eger.
There was also a 25% increase in reported rape cases on the island, 56 of which were domestic.
Eger said Tisch rolled out a new model for how domestic violence crimes are addressed in the latter half of 2025. Under this new model, most of the borough’s domestic violence officers were absorbed into the detective bureau.
“So they brought their skills of how they deal with survivors of domestic violence, they brought that into the detective bureau,” Eger explained. “So now, domestic violence investigators will handle the cases as they live. They will triage cases, they will care for survivors, try to promote participation throughout the criminal justice process and they will see that offenders are held accountable. They will investigate the domestic violence crimes and make the apprehensions and follow up with survivors as well.”
As part of this unit, domestic violence officers and detectives were reassigned from the Patrol Services Bureau and Housing Bureau to the Detective Bureau, where they will see domestic violence investigations through from beginning to end. This effectively streamlines casework and benefits survivors with consistent support. Prior to the implementation of this unit, precinct and housing officers — as well as detectives from local precinct squads — were assigned to domestic violence cases, resulting in duplication of work, as previously reported.
The borough commander also hopes to put a “heavy focus” on youth crime in 2026.
According to Eger, crime involving youth increased by 25% in 2025, a number driven by a 51% increase in youth robberies.
“So going into this year, we are really concentrating our efforts in quick identification of emerging youth offenders,” said Eger.
She added that the NYPD hopes to strengthen their collaboration with community partners, including community-based organizations and faith leaders in the hopes of holding interventions with these at-risk youth. The NYPD also aims to enhance the partnership with schools, the district attorney’s office and family court.