On April 6, the New York City Police Department reported that homicides decreased 15.8 percent in March 2022 compared with March 2021 – 32 vs. 38 – while overall crime increased by 36.5 percent to 9,873 incidents vs. 7,232.

The city Police Department report, which includes details of crimes in every major category, is issued every month.

The statistics for March, perhaps with the exception of the drop in homicides, were consistent with a spike in crime in New York City over the past two years as well as in cities across the country.

What about Nassau County? Good question.

Nassau County Police Commissioner Pat Ryder reported in July 2021 when Democrat Laura Curran was county executive that in the areas covered by county police crime had decreased by more than 10 percent over the previous year.

Since 2011, Ryder said at the time, major crime in Nassau County had fallen by 36 percent. A decade ago Nassau saw 7,191 reports of major crime compared with 4,983 last year, Ryder said.

But Ryder, who was reappointed by Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has said nothing publicly about Nassau County’s crime statistics since July – even as he has joined Blakeman in calling for a rollback of bail reform.

At the bottom of the Nassau County Police Department website, there is a statement about the Uniform Crime Reports program that says since it began in 1930 it has become “an important source of crime information for law enforcement, policymakers, scholars and the media.”

But the crime statistics just below the statement on their importance only include a comparison covering a 10-month period from January to October 2021 with the same period in 2020.

The statistics show that major crimes declined 2.59 percent in 2021 with murder dropping 46.15 percent – from 13 to seven.

But why no statistics since October 2021, when Curran was county executive? Why no year-end numbers? Why no statistics on the first three months of 2022 as reported by New York City?

We would like to think that Ryder, Blakeman and members of the county Legislature are receiving up-to-date statistics to help them set policy.

If so, why isn’t the public receiving this information so residents can evaluate how their elected officials are performing and what candidates for statewide office are saying on the campaign trail about crime?

The increase in crime reflected in the city’s monthly statistics was a central issue in New York City’s  elections when Eric Adams, a former New York City police captain, was elected mayor in 2021.

Nassau County Republicans blamed the rise in crime on bail reforms enacted by Democrats in the state Legislature in 2019 and used the issue to sweep the four countywide elective offices in November’s elections, including county executive and district attorney.

Are they now reluctant to release information that would indicate they overstated the threat to Nassau County residents?

Blank Slate Media has made several requests for current crime statistics in recent months, including one made under the Freedom of Information Law. But it has yet to receive the up-to-date information.

During his campaign for county executive, Blakeman also downplayed Nassau being called the safest county in the country for the second year in a row by U.S. News and World Report. He said he questioned the magazine’s methodology.

Blakeman’s campaign ads instead frequently cited an increase in guns being fired in the county without citing the basis of his claim.

Guns fired are not a category listed on the country’s website, so we’d be interested in the basis of his claim.

What we do know is that once elected Blakeman reappointed Ryder as police commissioner – a noteworthy decision by the county executive in light of his criticism of rising crime in Nassau during his campaign.

Around the same time, Adams appointed Nassau Chief of Detectives Keechant Sewell as the city’s first Black police commissioner.

Since being elected county executive, Blakeman has been a leader of those seeking the repeal of  what they have called cashless bail. This has included joining a dozen GOP leaders at the state Capitol to blast Democrats and paint New York’s bail laws as a boon for repeat offenders.

Are Nassau County’s crime statistics being withheld because they contain good news? That certainly might raise questions about Blakeman’s vocal opposition to bail reform.

This does not mean that bail reform has not had an impact on crime in New York or that this is only an issue drummed up by Republicans.

Then District Attorney Madeline Singas, a Democrat, was among those who expressed concerns about the legislation even before it went into effect.

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, also a Democrat, called for a series of changes presented to the Legislature in the face of a series of news reports about an uptick in crime in the state in January 2020 and stories of crimes allegedly committed by people recently released under the new bail law.

Other Democrats, including Adams, have also criticized the bail law reforms contained in the state budget in January 2020.

Democrats in the state Legislature have said studies show that bail reform was not a factor in the rise in crime, but they and Gov. Kathy Hochul have agreed to rollbacks in bail reform as part of a deal on the state’s $220 billion budget.

Adams called the changes agreed upon in the 2022 state budget a good first step by giving judges more discretion to jail certain classes of defendants, including weighing whether a defendant has a history of arrests for gun crimes or other violent crimes.

But unlike Republicans, Adams has blamed the rise in crime and gun violence on a number of causes, including the “constant flow” of firearms into the city and poverty.

Critics of bail reform rollbacks have pointed out that states across the country have seen similar increases in crime that coincide with the coronavirus pandemic and the toll taken on mental health and people’s finances.

Criminal justice advocates and progressive lawmakers say crime statistics do not justify the changes and that the rollbacks will further criminalize poverty in New York. Others disagree.

This is a necessary debate.

But facts are needed to have this discussion – something not being offered at the moment by Nassau County.