While the reported number of violent and felony crimes has decreased throughout New York in recent years, the number of complaints and arrests for misdemeanor and low-level crimes has been steadily rising, police statistics show.

The most dramatic increase for misdemeanor arrests appears to be in Manhattan, where the number of arrests jumped last year by nearly 9%, with a total of 69,838 arrests compared to 64,197 in 2003. Police could not determine if that increase includes the 1,800 arrests made during the Republican National Convention last summer.

Citywide, the number of arrests for misdemeanors – criminal charges that could range from quality of life crimes like vandalism to domestic disputes like endangering the welfare of a child – has increased 4.6% over the last three years, with 226,730 total arrests made by police in 2004 compared to 216,763 arrests in 2002. Over the last year, the number of misdemeanor arrests rose 1.6% across the city, according to crime statistics the police department disclosed to the City Council. Overall, the police make twice as many misdemeanor arrests than they do felony arrests.

In the Bronx, the number of misdemeanor arrests rose 13.4% over the last two years, to 54,252 arrests in 2004 from 47,844 arrests in 2002, statistics show. Over the last year, the number of misdemeanor arrests in the Bronx increased almost 2%.

In statements before the City Council’s public safety committee during a budget hearing yesterday morning, the Manhattan district attorney, Robert Morgenthau, the Bronx attorney, Robert Johnson, the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel Donovan, and the special narcotics prosecutor, Bridget Brennan, all made similar complaints: that baseline funding cuts, coupled with the increase in arrests for misdemeanors, has hampered their ability to conduct quality prosecutions.

The loss of funds has also encouraged many talented assistant district attorneys to start new legal careers in the private sector, they said. All of the district attorneys asked the City Council members to help restore the estimated $33 million that has been collectively cut from their budgets between fiscal years 2002 and 2005.

“Every cut to the D.A.’s office represents an increase in cost to the city, and more crime on the streets,” the chairman of the public safety committee, Peter Vallone Jr., a Democrat of Queens, said.

While the district attorneys, along with many city agencies, have had to grapple with budget cuts, the conviction rates for felony crimes has stayed roughly the same or decreased only slightly, state records show.

Some conviction rates have even increased.

Despite losing a quarter of his staff to the private sector, Mr. Donovan saw Staten Island’s conviction rate for felony indictments – once the worst rate in the state when Mr. Donovan ran for office – rise to the highest in the city last year, reaching 94.8% in 2004.

In Manhattan, despite having 150 fewer felony cases to handle last year, the conviction rate dipped some, earning an 88.55% rating in 2004 compared to a 90.2% rating in 2003, according to statistics recorded by the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services.

In Brooklyn, the conviction rate for felony crimes fell roughly at the same rate. Taking on an additional 30 felony cases last year, records show the conviction rate under Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes fell to 88.1% in 2004, down from 90.3% in 2003.

Brooklyn also appears to be the only borough that experienced a decrease in misdemeanor arrests, according to a spokesman for Mr. Hynes, Jerry Schmetterer. Last year, the number of arrests for misdemeanor crimes in Brooklyn dipped by about 4%, with a total 56,356 arrests in 2004, compared to 58,787 arrests in 2003, he said.

The reason for the slight dip in Brooklyn and the cumulative increases around the city could range from any number of factors, Mr. Schmetterer said, such as aggressive enforcement. He also stressed that crime statistics can often be inconclusive and interpreted in different ways.

While the police department aggressively tracks major felony crimes such as murder, rape, and robbery on the celebrated Compstat system, the department does not chart misdemeanors in the same way. A spokesman for the police department said an analysis of the misdemeanor arrests in recent years was not immediately available.

The chairman of the public safety committee, Mr. Vallone, attributed the number of misdemeanor arrests “sneaking up” for quality life crimes and the slight dip in conviction rates to the shrinking size of a police department. He also noted that the NYPD has had its budget depleted, while adding additional counter-terrorism efforts to its crime-fighting responsibilities.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told City Council yesterday that until 2000, there were more than 40,000 police officers on the force. Now there are 37,038 officers in the department.

Addressing the department’s costly overtime expenses yesterday, Mr. Kelly said that hiring more police officers would not shrink the rising amount of overtime pay the department has continued to shell out. Over the last four years, the police department has paid an annual average of more than $100 million in overtime pay that was not included in its original budget.

In fiscal year 2005, for instance, the police department budgeted for the highest amount of overtime it has paid in previous years, $285 million; the actual overtime expense, however, was $420 million, according to statistics provided by the city comptroller. Some police officers are making more money in overtime pay than in salary, according to a list of the police department’s “Top 100” overtime earners.

While Mr. Vallone has argued that hiring more police officers would decrease the amount of overtime pay the department spends, Mr. Kelly explained yesterday that the bulk of overtime pay comes from officers working extended tours or on counter-terrorism measures. By hiring more officers, the department would also have to cover additional costs, such as benefits packages and medical expenses, Mr. Kelly said.

The reason the department spends $100 million above its budgeted target amount every year, Mr. Kelly said, is attributed to costs of planned and unplanned events, such as parades and the Republican National Convention. These are not typically figured into the department’s preliminary budget.

In testimony yesterday, Mr. Kelly also highlighted some of the police department’s upcoming projects, such as acquiring a site in the Bronx for an auxiliary 911 emergency call center; expanding a pilot program citywide to collect DNA samples at robbery scenes to catch burglars, and updating the department’s technology capabilities by creating a “data warehouse.”

“If we knew what we knew,” Mr. Kelly said, “then we’d really be powerful.”