County Executive George Latimer, left; right Republican BOL candidate Dan Branda
Can Both Be Right?
By Dan Murphy
On Oct. 11, Westchester County Executive George Latimer held a press conference with county law enforcement officials to release statistics that show the crime is down in Westchester County again.
Latimer said: “Once again, it is clear that our dedication to combatting crime in Westchester County remains steadfast. The Westchester County Department of Public Safety is funded at the highest level ever because of my commitment to keeping this County safety for us all. While certain regions in the state are grappling with unfortunate spikes in crime rates, Westchester County is once again maintaining our consistent decline in criminal activities. I credit this encouraging trend to the dedication and courage of our law enforcement personnel.”
The Westchester County Department of Public Safety conducted a thorough analysis, comparing crime data from 2017 and 2022. In 2017, Latimer defeated former County Executive Rob Astorino, and this data comparison shows that during Astorino’s final year in office, crime rates were higher in Westchester than they are today.
Republican Dan Branda, who is running for County Legislator on Nov. 7 against BOL Chair Vedat Gashi, (District 4, New Castle, Somers, Yorktown) says that crime data shows that year over year, crime in many categories is up in Westchester. “I am alarmed with how easily and intentionally County Executive George Latimer lied about something as simple and independently verifiable as the growing crime rates in Westchester County.
“Let’s be clear: George Latimer created a narrative–that crime is down “again” in Westchester–and then he cherry-picked a random year as a point of comparison. Why are we comparing crime rates to 2017? Why not 1967? Why not 1867? The Board of Legislators needs to immediately hold a hearing because crime is up across the board, and 20% overall since last year,” said Branda.
We spoke to both Latimer and Branda for further clarification. Latimer explained that comparing crime rates dating back to 2017, “offers a continued trend that over this time period, crime has gone down. He also added that “violent crime rates continue to remain low in Westchester County, while non-violent crimes have seen a recent uptick.”
