NEW YORK (REUTERS) - New York City Mayor Eric Adams told a news conference on Monday (Jan 24) that he would implement an aggressive plan to end gun violence in the city, following the fatal shooting of a police officer and a spate of violent crimes.

Mr Adams, a former police officer, said the plan would deliver on a pledge he made during his campaign by deploying more police officers, stemming the flow of guns into the city, and appointing anti-gun violence coordinators in every city agency.

"We are turning our pain into purpose," he said.

Mr Adams' announcement came in the wake of a series of highly publicised, lethal crimes in New York City that have occurred in the weeks since he was sworn in on Jan 1.

Two police officers were shot in Harlem on Friday while responding to a domestic violence call, leaving one dead and the other in critical condition. Two other police officers were shot in separate incidents last week in other parts of the city.

As in many US cities, murders and gun violence have surged over the past two years in New York.

Experts say the trend partly reflects the social disruption from the pandemic and its effect of reducing the number of police officers on duty.  

The city counted 488 murders last year, up 5.6 per cent over 2020 following a 47 per cent jump a year earlier, the biggest year-to-year percentage increase ever recorded in the country’s most populous city.

That spike ended a fairly steady decline in murders since 1990, when the number peaked at 2,245.  

Shootings doubled from 2019 to 1,532 in 2020, and increased 2 per cent in 2021, according to city statistics.    

The "Blueprint to End Gun Violence" will within three weeks put more police officers on patrol in 30 precincts where 80 per cent of the city's violence takes place, according to Mr Adams.

He said the officers will be identifiable as New York Police Department employees, and will have body-worn cameras and "enhanced" training and oversight.

The plan also entails using facial recognition technology and implementing new "spot checks" at various entry points into New York City, to screen travellers for illegal guns, Mr Adams said.

City authorities already confiscate illicit firearms on a regular basis, with 6,000 removed from the city in 2021, but new guns enter the city at a faster rate, according to Adams.

"We have become the dumping ground," he said.

Mr Adams also encouraged prosecutors to "triage gun cases" to make sure they are the first cases brought to court, and called on lawmakers to reduce the number of guns that a person must traffic before they can be charged with a felony.

A former police captain and Brooklyn borough president, Mr Adams, a Democrat, won November's mayoral election on a platform that promised to improve public safety through investment in more aggressive policing.

His stance alienated some progressive Democrats because it clashed with the "defund the police" rallying cry heard at protests against racism and police brutality since 2020.

But it echoed calls for tougher policing from Democratic mayoral candidates across the country in 2021, who feared being painted as soft on crime by Republican opponents.