New York has been a fairly safe city in recent years, at least as safe as major cities go. All that went out the window a couple of months ago, all because of something that happened in a completely different state.

Now, the Big Apple is a pressure cooker just waiting to explode. In fact, it kind of already is. Violence has stricken the city in ways few expected and the police have seemingly been powerless to stop it.

Now, the NYPD commissioner is offering up his thoughts on how to stem the tide of bloodshed.

he NYPD is committed to combating gun violence and arresting those responsible for the recent surge in shootings across the city, but its efforts will “take some time,” Commissioner Dermot Shea said in an interview with 1010 WINS on Monday.

Shea and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday announced a new initiative, the “End Gun Violence Plan,” that aims to address what Shea described as a “sharp uptick in gun violence” in parts of the five boroughs.

In an interview with 1010 WINS’ Kathleen Marple on Monday morning, Shea said it would “take a little bit of time” to see the plan yield results.

“Towards the end of last week, we moved a lot of resources to the areas where it’s needed, both on the patrol side and on the investigative side,” he said. “And it’s going to take some time, it’s going to take some time to have effect.”

“We’ve started to see some arrests on some of these shootings. (But) it’s going to take a lot more of that to really turn the tide here, and it’s going to take a significant number of people off the streets,” he added. “There are people that are carrying guns with no regard to life, and that’s who we’re concentrating on. That’s who New Yorkers want us to get off the street.”

To his credit, Shea didn’t try to pretend that the response to COVID-19 and recent bail reforms in New York couldn’t have played any factor in this surge of violence. He didn’t credit it exclusively, either, which is probably also accurate.

The problem, however, is that while it will take time to deal with this, innocent people may die in the interim.

On the other hand, though, I don’t see any way around that. Shea has to do what he can with what he has. He can’t snap his fingers and make the problem go away.

For what it’s worth, it looks like Shea is making the right steps. They’re focusing their attention on areas where there are problems and they’re going after the bad guys.

Let’s just hope it works.