After 152% spike, NYPD changes how it reports hate crimes

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Partly sunny, slight chance of afternoon showers, highs in the mid 70s.

It's Wednesday in New York City, where the NYPD reported 58 bias crimes back in January, driven largely by a spike in reports of anti-Jewish acts. 

That figure marked a 152% increase in reported hate crimes compared to January of 2025.

But in February, the police department changed its criteria for reporting hate crimes, leaving out incidents under review and only including confirmed hate crimes in the total tally.

While the NYPD says the change more accurately shows what’s happening in the city, two scholars who study the issue cautioned that the new method could make it look like hate crimes are dropping when they’re not.

Here's what we know about the latest data. 

And here's what else is happening:

• Thousands of New Yorkers who ordered the $50 city-issued trash bins still haven't received them, and risk facing fines as soon as June if the sanitation department doesn't deliver them in time.
• Today is the deadline for NYU Langone to continue offering gender-affirming care for minors after the hospital canceled the procedures but was then ordered by the state to resume them.
• Police have arrested and charged a Brooklyn man with attempted murder for allegedly shoving two other men onto the tracks at an Upper East Side subway station this week.
• Lawyers for Guy Rivera, a man accused of murdering an NYPD officer who approached his car in Far Rockaway in 2024, are arguing at his trial that Rivera's gun went off accidentally.
• Federal prosecutors have brought new civil rights charges against two former NYPD officers for allegedly breaking into a Queens brothel while they were on the job in 2024 and stealing money from a naked woman before one of them sexually violated her.
• A German tourist is suing Los Tacos No. 1 in federal court in Manhattan over a green salsa he claims was too spicy. A Gothamist reporter tried it himself to see what the fuss is about.

• Let's enjoy our last day of fool's spring.
• New York City's boomer dentists are about to retire, so we need to quickly train more.
• A 46-year-old man died this week in Ozone Park while riding a scooter in an area riddled with dangerous potholes.
• A new analysis from the Vera Institute found that only 42% of the 911 calls that resulted in an NYPD response last year were labeled by dispatchers as "crime related," while the majority of calls had to do with issues including personal disputes, utility problems and traffic incidents.
• The Tunnel to Towers Foundation mounted a steel beam from the World Trade Center in the bed of a box truck and is taking it on a tour across the country to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11.
• Boring work is still meaningful.
• Meet the world's fattest parrot.