Captain Michael Falcon (seated, center) listens to community council president Erica Ehrenberg at Monday’s meeting.
By Krista Carter
A spike in burglaries and new body cameras for officers were among the issues discussed at Monday night’s 20th precinct community council meeting. The 20th covers the neighborhood South of 86th street.
• Captain Michael Falcon reported on the year to date crime statistics:
o 0 murders
o Rape is down, 8 compared to 10
o Felony assaults are down by 15
o Burglaries are up, 82 compared to 71
o Grand larcenies are down, 609 compared to 628
o Major crime index for the year is down by 44
• Riverside Park robberies on 11/6:
o 4 arrested, 2 males and 2 females aged 19-24
o 11/12 – 2 males arrested
o 11/17 – first female arrested
o 11/19 – second female arrested
o All still in custody. From the 23rd or 25th precinct.
• 5 burglaries committed from 8/25-11/5 at high-end stores
o Police have numerous resources patrolling midnights looking for suspect
o Believed to shop high-end stores during the day because he knows where products are in the stores
o Uses a brick to break window
o Last two incidents occurred at 6AM and people were seen passing by and not taking action
See photo of suspect below.
• Burglary arrest at 85th St and Amsterdam on Friday night, but not the suspect from the high-end stores. This perpetrator fit a different pattern of grabbing registers at bodegas and grocery stores.
• Chief James Secreto, Chief of Housing, spoke briefly on Friday night’s shooting at a Brooklyn housing project, where an officer shot and killed Akai Gurley.
o 2 rookie offices, each 27-years-old, were doing a vertical of an 8 story building. The officers were on the 8th floor when a male and a female acquaintance came out to the 7th floor. It was dark and the officer fired a shot which hit the wall and ricocheted and hit the 28-year-old male victim in the chest. The officers called over the radio that there was an “accidental discharge”
o Police training guide says gun should not have been charged nor should the officer have had his finger on the trigger
o People are calling for the rookie officer to be charged with reckless conduct but TBD
o Not enough senior officers to put with each rookie
• 12/5 and 12/19: officers will begin training and wearing PSA body cameras
o Initial cameras will be given out to 9 officers in total, but eventually 20,000 will activate cameras for arrests, car stops, domestic disputes and situations that are escalating in violence
o Cost $100/month per officer to store data
• Terrorism:
o 162nd and Jackson Ave, Queens (103 precinct) 2 officers hit with hatchet by a jihadist. The perpetrator had been looking up how to perform a terrorist act on the internet. In the past, terrorists used to find how to make bombs, but now they are looking into committing individual acts e.g. getting a gun and shooting or crashing into a crowd with a vehicle
• Q&A:
o Residents concerned about vendors taking up too much sidewalk space for pedestrians, mostly from 72nd to 74th Street on Broadway. Booksellers are believed to be illegally selling cigarettes and blasting music.
Burglary suspect.
NYPD should send anti-crime plainclothes officers into Riverside Park as decoys to apprehend the muggers who have been attacking people there in recent months? Decoy operations are regularly used by the Transit Bureau very effectively to catch lawbreakers and have been deployed ever since Commissioner Bratton introduced the strategy back in the 90’s.
“• Captain Michael Falcon reported on the year to date crime statistics:
o 0 murders
o Rape is down, 8 compared to 10
o Felony assaults are down by 15
o Burglaries are up, 82 compared to 71
o Grand larcenies are down, 609 compared to 628
o Major crime index for the year is down by 44”
Interesting statistics.
But of course a number of commenters here will continue to insist that we are in the midst of a return to the darkest days of the 70s, one that is directly attributable to the criminal mastermind in Gracie Mansion.
The cameras are a very worthwhile initiative, and it is also good to hear our local cops address the terrible tragedy in Brooklyn.
Thanks to the 20th for everything that they do.
Stop with the straw man attacks. Many of us are trying to prevent a return to the days of crime through our votes and speaking our minds.
it’s not a straw man attack if it’s true. Check back to the past threads on crime to see how the conservative crowd keeps insisting that we’re in the middle of a crime wave.
Leave those vendors alone, that block is one of the last old upper west blocks left and they sell some very rare vinyl and books. Oh god no not loud music, it’s probably because they’re black and the new yuppie tenants don’t want to deal with that.
To play loud music in a public place is to impose a nuisance upon the public. (And, if loud enough to damage hearing as is often the case, a health threat as well.) Race is completely irrelevant here.
Some people just have to trot out the race card, don’t they? No matter how baseless it may be.
I’m a fan of the booksellers. The music is no louder than a car stereo or truck engine. It’s nice. It’s songs like Billie Jean and Stevie Nicks – stuff we’ve been hearing in dentists’ offices and dancing to at bar mitzvahs for the last 25 years. Maybe some Jackson 5, maybe a little Notorious BIG once in a long while. I like how they bring literature and character to the street.
I didn’t get around to posting this on the item about the 24th Precinct community council, which I attended, so I will post this here.
Some WSR commenters had been posting alarmist items about the increase in rapes in the 24th. Last year at this time there were 9; this year, 13. So someone headlined “44% increase in rape.”
I asked one of the leading officers in the 24th (not Capt. Larin) about this, and he confirmed my feeling, that this simply was “the law of small numbers.” Small random variations can appear as large percentages. For example, in the 20th, the decrease from 10 to 8 is a “20% decrease.”
He said they don’t believe there is a “surge” in rapists or serial rapists on the loose.
Of course, saying this, as with all crimes, is no consolation to the victims. But people were curious as to whether there was a unified cause, and there appears not to be.
No one has ever on this site said we ARE back to the bad old days.
The words get twisted by a few with a clear extremist left wing agenda, without acknowledging the real world
What many many people have done is voiced their concern that we are sliding back in that direction – which from the horrible violent crimes and yes, quality of life violators – we are appear to be.
No one – except certain folks who I have really know idea where they are coming from – wants us to just site ideally by while our neighborhood becomes unsafe and we feel not free to go about our lives as we have grown accustomed to – i.e traveling at night, not being robbed or cars being broken into without the blame given to the victims (what were you thinking taking the subway/walking in the park/parking your car/leaving your stuff unattended/etc/etc ….
we will end the year with crime down, probably by 4% or so. I hope when the year is done you give “props” to the excellent job on crime done by Mayor De Blasio, Commish Bratton, and the NYPD.
Deblasio, Bratton announce that crime in NYC is at historically low levels:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/nyregion/violent-crime-in-new-york-has-dropped-to-historic-low-mayor-de-blasio-says.html