More than half of New Yorkers surveyed are concerned they could be a victim of crime, a poll released Wednesday by Siena College found.
The poll highlights how public safety concerns continue to be a dominant concern for New Yorkers after an election season in which crime — and how to address it — was a top-tier issue for voters.
The poll found a combined 61% of voters are either very concerned or somewhat concerned they would be a victim of crime. The poll also found 51% of New Yorkers are concerned for their own family's safety when they are in public spaces like schools, stores or houses of worship.
More than a third of New Yorkers, 36%, have felt threatened in a public place because of a stranger's behavior.
“Crime isn’t just something that happens to others far away according to New Yorkers,” said Siena College Research Institute Director Don Levy. “While 87% say crime is a serious problem in our state and 57% say it is a problem in their community, a disturbingly high 61% say that they are worried about it happening to them, a majority are concerned about themselves or their loved ones being safe in public places and many are taking steps to protect themselves as best they can.”
The campaign season a year ago hinged in large part over issues like the state's controversial cashless bail law, which limits cash bail requirements for many criminal charges. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who won a full term last year in one of the closest gubernatorial elections in a generation over Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, was able to win some changes to the law to expand when bail could be considered by a judge in criminal cases.
Lawmakers and Hochul this year agreed to more funding for law enforcement, including added money for the State Police to expand their ranks with more graduating classes.
But the Democratic-led Legislature also addressed long-standing criminal justice issues, including a measure that would seal an estimated 2 million criminal records; Hochul is yet to sign the measure.
Polling throughout the year found voters ranked public safety as their primary issue in the election season. And it may be difficult to reverse that sentiment in the long term.
The poll found 41% of voters have "never been this worried about their personal safety as they are today." At the same time, 9% of residents, including 16% of New York City residents, told the Siena survey they have been physically assaulted over the last year.
The same percentage of New Yorkers say they have been the victim of burglary over the last year, the poll found.
The poll was conducted from June 4 to June 12. It included 382 New York adults surveyed over cellphones and landlines as well as 420 responses drawn from an online panel. It has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.