Northeast
CRISIS IN NEW YORK: 39-year NYPD vet says ‘palpable fear’ still plagues city as crime remains high
This article is part three of Crisis in New York, a series examining the effects public policies have on the city’s already strained housing, law enforcement and drug services. Read parts one and two.
NEW YORK CITY — A 39-year police veteran said New Yorkers live in fear, scared that brazen criminals will attack them on the subways or streets, even as city leaders boast decreases in crime.
“There’s a sense of disorder, a sense of decay, and what I like to call palpable fear,” retired NYPD Sgt. Pete Panuccio told Fox News. “Those are things you can’t quantify, but people are scared again.”
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New York City leaders have touted crime reductions since the historically bloody 2020, which saw the most murders since 2011 among other violent crimes, according to New York City Police Department data. But Panuccio said a culture of lawlessness, which he blamed on permissive, progressive policies, exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic and has persisted ever since, leaving residents on edge as crime remains high.
“People are scared to go out on the street late at night,” Panuccio said.
A 39-year New York City cop says city officials tout recent crime drops but ignore the major spike still lingering since the pandemic. The “palpable fear” New Yorkers feel can’t be quantified, he adds. (Fox News/Teny Sahakian/Megan Myers)
Mayor Eric Adams touted crime reductions during a Jan. 3 public safety address, including a 12% drop in homicides and a 25% decrease in shootings between 2022 and 2023. He added that “New Yorkers are breathing easier” because of his administration’s efforts to reduce crime.
But Panuccio said those figures hide the real story and pointed to pre-pandemic crime levels.
“You can play numbers games all day long, which city hall is very fond of,” Panuccio said. “If you compare it to 2019, the crime jump is staggering.”
“There’s a sense of disorder, a sense of decay, and what I like to call palpable fear. Those are things you can’t quantify.”
While crime has trended downward since the pandemic, some offenses are still much higher, including homicides, which were up 21% at the end of last year compared to 2019, according to NYPD data. Robberies and felony assaults have risen 26% and 35%, respectively, and motor vehicle thefts nearly tripled.
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More than two-thirds of New Yorkers said crime was a serious issue in their community and that they were concerned they would be the next victim of a crime, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll published in July. More than 40% felt threatened by a stranger’s behavior in public.
Crime has been on a downward trend since 2020, but many offenses remain high compared to pre-pandemic levels. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
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The city’s crime “numbers are garbage,” Panuccio said. “People are scared. You can’t attach a number to that.”
Panuccio joined NYPD in 1981, spending 25 years working in the detective bureau, plus a few in narcotics. But he became frustrated with New York’s progressive policies and retired July 30, 2020, after seeing social justice protests in the city devolve into riots with mass destruction and looting.
The long-time cop told Fox News the current culture of fear gripping the Big Apple reminds him of the 1980s, when crime was running rampant across the city at historic highs.
“We clean the city up. We have a 20-year run,” Panuccio said. “Now we’re back to this sense that people feel like the streets are out of control again. People felt safe, but now people have fear again.”
Hundreds of looters burglarized and vandalized stores throughout New York City following the murder of George Floyd. A former NYPD cop says the culture of lawlessness borne from liberal policies allowed the violence and vandalism to continue at the largest scale he’s ever seen. (Associated Press)
One woman, Paula Gavioli, told the New York Post in July she was fleeing the Big Apple for New Jersey to escape the crime. She said she no longer felt safe without her pepper spray, which she keeps in her handbag at all times.
“Everything emanates from public safety in New York City. If we don’t have public safety, we don’t have a city.”
Another New York woman, Marjorie Mann, said she felt more uneasy about going on the subway or walking the streets alone.
“Being in public places feels more unsafe than ever before,” Mann told the NYP. “People seem like they’re looking for fights a little bit more than they used to. People seem angry and like they’re looking for an excuse to get it out.”
Panuccio said he saw that same sense of terror in the crime-ridden ‘80s, but watched it subside over the course of the following decade when city officials got tough on crime during Republican Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s administration.
Panuccio, a 39-year NYPD veteran, says New Yorkers’ fear will only continue if Democrats remain in power, allowing a culture of lawlessness to persist. (Fox News/Megan Myers/Teny Sahakian)
“The number one issue, and what saved New York City in the ’90s, was public safety,” he said. “Everything emanates from public safety in New York City. If we don’t have public safety, we don’t have a city.”
Panuccio accused progressive politicians of pushing soft-on-crime policies that have enabled criminals, fostered a culture of lawlessness and created the fear New Yorkers feel. He said real change won’t come until Democrats are out of power.
“New York City’s a captive city, captured by the progressives,” Panuccio said. “A lot of people gave their lives to make this city a safer place. It’s all been washed away.”
Adams’ office, in response to Fox News’ request for comment, noted that crime has decreased under his administration. Neither NYPD nor the New York City Council’s Progressive Caucus responded to requests for comment.
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State Treasurer Erick Russell achieved a 14% increase last year investing Connecticut’s pension fund assets, gaining roughly $8.3 billion for retirement programs for state employees, teachers and other municipal workers.
The state, which oversees nearly $69 billion in pension assets, aims for an average annual return on pension investments of 6.9%.
Expectations for bigger gains grew throughout the past year as key stock market indices surged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges, grew by more than 13% in 2025. And the S&P 500, which follows 500 traded companies, topped 16%.
Among peer states and other entities that manage public pension funds holding more than $10 billion in assets, Connecticut’s 2025 performance ranks in the top 17%, Russell said.
But the treasurer, who also announced this week he will seek a second term, said the latest big earnings stem from more than the big gains Wall Street enjoyed in 2025.
“Markets certainly have been strong, but a lot of this is about our overall asset allocation,” said Russell, who updated the Investment Advisory Council Tuesday on the state’s portfolio. “The progress we’ve been making … is a good sign that we’re set up for future success.”
Russell also reported investment gains of 10.3% for the 2024 calendar year and 12.8% for 2023.
State officials particularly have focused on improving investment returns since a May 2023 report from Yale University researchers found Connecticut’s results badly lagged the nation’s over the prior decade.
That only compounded an even larger pension problem that state officials began to address in the early 2010s. According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Connecticut governors and legislatures failed to save adequate for pension benefits for more than seven decades prior to 2011. This deprived the state treasurer of huge assets that otherwise could have been invested to generate billions of dollars in revenue over those seven decades.
The treasurer’s office under Russell has put more funds into private and domestic markets and curbed reliance on investment managers who receive large fees for their work.
Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly also have greatly assisted efforts to bolster the fiscal health of pension programs in recent years. Since 2020, they have used $10 billion from budget surpluses to make supplemental payments into pensions for state employees and municipal teachers. That’s in addition to annual required payments that currently approach $3.3 billion in the General Fund.
“These returns highlight the impressive work of Treasurer Russell and his team in increasing investment returns,” Lamont’s budget spokesman, Chris Collibee, said Tuesday. “Gov. Lamont’s focus has been on building a sustainable Connecticut for the future. Every dollar in additional investment revenue is funds the state can use to cut taxes and provide more resources for essential programs like education, child care, housing, and social services safety nets.”
Russell, a New Haven Democrat, said he has tried to make the office both “disciplined and forward-looking.”
“Over the last several years, we haven’t just changed how the office works, we’ve changed who it works for. We’re ushering in a new era of fiscal responsibility, making significant payments on long-term debt that has allowed us to invest in the residents of Connecticut and begin to lift up communities across our state.”
Russell also brokered a key compromise in 2023 between Lamont and the legislature that salvaged the Baby Bonds program, an initiative that invests long-term funds in Connecticut’s poorest children when they’re born to help finance educational and business opportunities later in life.
Keith M. Phaneuf is a reporter for The Connecticut Mirror (https://ctmirror.org). Copyright 2026 © The Connecticut Mirror.
A person was hit by a vehicle Tuesday morning in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Police responded just after 10 a.m. to the crash at the intersection of Elm Street and Carter Street.
Officers began treating the pedestrian, who was then taken to an area hospital with unspecified injuries.
The driver stayed at the scene, the Waltham Police Department said.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
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