All topics / Public Safety and Access to Justice / Department of Investigation
Referrals for criminal prosecution
Protect public resources from corruption, fraud, waste, and abuse and ensure that City employees and vendors act with integrity. — Improve the impact and effectiveness of investigations.
Referrals for criminal prosecution fell 36% in Fiscal 2025, which DOI's own reporting attributes to handling fewer, more complex investigations involving smaller numbers of people rather than a high volume of simpler cases. The Fiscal 2026 total is also lower in part because DOI switched to a new case-management system in February 2025 that counts each case referred for prosecution as one referral, instead of counting every individual named within that case as the old system did; the FY26 figure is also a year-to-date total that will continue to update as the year closes out.
Researched July 15, 2026 — DOI, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, DOI, Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor's Management Report
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above. The dashed marker projects a full-year estimate at the current year-to-date pace.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual |
|---|---|
| FY22 | 415 referrals |
| FY23 | 425 referrals |
| FY24 | 449 referrals |
| FY25 | 287 referrals |
| FY26 (YTD) | 98 referrals |
| FY26 (projected) | ~131 referrals |
Why this is tracked
DOI began as the Office of the Commissioners of Accounts in 1873, established after the corruption of the Tweed Ring exposed how easily city money could be looted without independent checks. It was renamed the Department of Investigation in a 1938 charter revision and remains one of the country's oldest municipal law-enforcement agencies. Today it investigates fraud, corruption, and misconduct by City employees, contractors, and anyone doing business with or receiving funds from the City, including running vendor integrity screening (VENDEX) and an Integrity Monitor Program for contractors with past compliance issues.
DOI Mission and History, New York City Department of Investigation - Wikipedia, DOI Vendor Integrity
Source: Case Management System — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported monthly.
Definition: The number of investigations in which factual findings were provided to federal, state and local prosecutors’ offices for possible criminal prosecution.