WATCH: New York City will ‘double down’ on neighborhood policing after July 4 weekend violence, De Blasio says

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that the city will “double down” on neighborhood policing efforts to curb violence, including a string of recent shootings. De Blasio said the the violence is a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic that hit New York City particularly hard, with more than 213,000 confirmed cases and more than 18,000 confirmed deaths.

Watch the news conference in the video player above.

“There’s not one cause for something like this. There’s a lot of different pieces,” De Blasio said during a news conference on Monday. “The fact that the court system is not working, the economy is not working, people have been pent up for months and months, so many issues underlying this challenge.”

In addition to neighborhood policing, De Blasio said the city will “need all hands on deck” to address the problem. He also announced plans to join community and law enforcement leaders in Harlem later on Monday to discuss the issue. The mayor previously announced an initiative to deploy hundreds of police officers to help address the city’s gun violence issue. The move comes amid nationwide calls for police reform and defunding police departments.