It was like something from the horrors of New York City’s past. Yesterday morning at 6:30 a man approached a sleeping woman on a Coney Island F train. According to police, the man set the woman on fire and then calmly watched her burn while police tried to put out the flames.

A suspect was taken into custody. But the murder marks a grim milestone: 11 murders on New York’s subways in 2024, the highest number in decades. This reinforces the pervasive sense of unease in many people’s daily journeys. Transportation statistics show that other types of violent crime per passenger have also increased, leaving millions of New Yorkers worried about whether they will be next.

But it’s not just the subway. NYPD data I collected for the Manhattan Institute shows that assaults across the city are at their highest level since at least 2006. Crimes such as robbery and car theft remain significantly higher than before the pandemic. The city is seeing a rise in young offenders and unrest is increasing, including a rise in shoplifting and an explosion in prostitution on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

Not long ago, New York was proof that big, progressive cities could also be safe and orderly. The city’s deep and sustained decline in crime in the 1990s and 2000s – twice as deep and twice as long as the rest of the country – earned it the nickname “the city that became safe.” But as the city has brought the recent spike in murders under control, gruesome crime stories are once again commonplace. What went wrong?

The answer lies in systematic errors that have left the city’s criminal justice system ill-equipped to deal with rising crime. A shortage of police officers, well-intentioned but damaging reforms and widespread dysfunction at City Hall have made it seem like America’s largest city is returning to the bad old days.

The problems start with the New York Police Department. The country’s largest police force, the NYPD, has around 33,000 sworn officers. But that’s down from about 36,000 in 2020. And according to a recent study from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY, up to a quarter of officers are considering resigning.

As a result, the NYPD is doing less than it used to. The districts along Roosevelt Avenue, for example, once had 100 patrol officers; today there are 20. The Police Benevolent Association, which represents NYPD officers, has complained that the Transit Bureau is too understaffed to keep the subway safe – leading to incidents like Sunday’s brutal murder .

But the problems go beyond the NYPD. Between 2018 and 2022, New York State implemented a series of comprehensive reforms to its criminal justice system. Although these changes were well-intentioned and in some cases successful, loopholes and quirks often hampered the system.

The best known is New York’s bail reform, which significantly limited the use of pretrial detention. An analysis by John Jay’s Data Collaborative for Justice found that bail reform has not increased overall crime in the city, but has likely increased crime among repeat offenders — including frequent recidivists who have made headlines about multiple re-arrests in a single day .

But the state also reformed its juvenile justice laws, which led to a sharp increase in crime among those under 16, according to the New York Criminal Justice Agency. And it led to drastic changes in the evidence-gathering process, forcing prosecutors to turn over huge amounts of information to the defense in a shorter amount of time, resulting in many cases going unprosecuted.

Of course, the blame for the city’s problems lies primarily with the mayor. Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, was elected on the basis of a tough, anti-crime campaign. But since taking office, he has been embroiled in scandals affecting every part of his government. That includes public safety: His former deputy mayor for public safety, Phil Banks, resigned amid a federal investigation. And the NYPD recently fired its highest-ranking uniformed officer, Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, amid allegations of sexual misconduct. (Maddrey denies the allegations.)

New Yorkers shouldn’t have to live like this. Not long ago, of course, they did. In the 1970s and 1980s, New York was a hotbed of violence and urban decay. But smart police work and effective governance made it safe. And both city dwellers and Americans should want it to be that way again.

To get there, however, crime must be brought back under control. That means New York City police hiring needs to expand significantly so police officers can stay on the beat. And it also means careful, targeted changes to New York’s criminal justice reforms. New York judges, like every other state in the Union, must be allowed to detain people based on their risk of reoffending. The overly demanding requirements of discovery reform can be relaxed, and we can make it easier to bring juveniles into adult court without defeating the fundamental purpose of the reform.

Most importantly, the city needs new public safety leadership that is free of scandal and corruption. Veterans of the force are optimistic about Jessica Tisch, the newly installed police commissioner who is widely seen as a model of administrative efficiency. She must be given the leeway to clean up the department.

All of these steps are necessary because New York’s crime problem is already out of control. New York subway riders deserve better than worrying about getting set on fire while commuting. And anyone who believes that American cities can and should be great deserves better.