By Carol Tannenhauser
Two women were attacked and robbed in recent days in Central Park, prompting WSR to call Deputy Inspector Christopher McIntosh, commanding officer of the Central Park Precinct, to find out what’s going on. Is Central Park becoming unsafe again? Should we fear going in?
There has been “a slight spike” in crime in the park in recent months,” McIntosh said, but the NYPD is on it. “We have increased our resources overwhelmingly, so we have cops on the northern end, the southern end, and in the middle of the park. Some are uniformed and some are not. As you can see from the robbery yesterday – I don’t want to give out our tactics, but – we were able to bring additional resources to bear within seconds. We were on the scene, broadcasting the descriptions. That’s how we were able to catch the perps so fast.”
As for stopping crimes before they happen, McIntosh said, “We have a pretty good working theory on who we’re focusing on. It’s just a matter of catching them. I can’t reveal the details of the investigation, but we have a good idea of who’s been committing these robberies.”
“The park is safe,” he said. “The holiday season’s coming and we will light it up like Disney World.” But McIntosh added a huge caveat: “Police resources have been steadily increased,” he said, “but I also want your readers to exercise common sense. If an area’s extremely dark and you’re walking by yourself, you shouldn’t have two ear pieces in, because, obviously, you can’t hear anything and you’re not aware of your surroundings.
“Everyone has freedom of choice what to do,” he said. “Just personally, I exercise common sense. I’m a big guy, but I wouldn’t run by myself at 2 a.m. in the park. That’s not to say the park is not safe, just exercise some common sense. Use your instincts. If your spider sense tingles, go with it.”
Related:
3 Arrested After Nanny Robbed in Central Park
4 Teens Assaulted and Robbed a Women in Central Park: Police
In other words don’t be an idiot.
This is reassuring.
See, what did I tell you folks? Disney Land!!!
Just cause you don’t see the police doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Nothing to see here folks.
Carry on about your business.
Put CAMERAS in the Park. Enough!
Too expensive, plus they can be vandalized easier in the park. Just be safe and alert. This is New York, none of this is new and we’re adults who can take care of ourselves.
@Mark, too expensive? Are you serious? You’ve got to be kidding right?
As for being New Yorkers and we can take care of ourselves, you sound like you got this slogan from a bubble gum wrapper. Perhaps YOU are a tough guy, but nannies and older people are not.
If London can do it, New York can do it. It’s going to be here eventually, the only question is how many people need to be mugged before we actually get it. The technology is here. We don’t need to accept that some of us will get stabbed and beaten because we are New Yorkers, lol.
I don’t need to be photographed by the police or any government agency every time I step out onto the street and do not want to give up my privacy to any lame brained government employee who has access to the system. Did you know that the current NYPD policy on their camera footage is to NEVER delete any of it?
People need to be smart about their surroundings and perpetrators need to be given harsh sentences – especially if they prey on the older or weaker members of society.
Move to London then… “Lol”
I agree that we need high-resolution video cameras throughout the city. Then facial recognition technology can be used to catch perpetrators quickly. I bet most of them have social media accounts with pictures that can be automatically compared to those captured on camera.
its obvious the one person who is responsible for all this bedlam…..yes you guessed it
Brief but well done interview.
Good common sense advice for any time of the year.
The only thing the Central Park Precinct has done well is turn the bridle path into its own giant parking lot. Moreover it is also free parking for unending numbers of freeloading con artists with Police Benevolent Association badges in their windows who have figured out that if you park on the bridle path on the precinct, you park for free in Manhattan and are never towed. Just like everywhere else, I rarely see any of the officers belonging to all those cars patroling the park–unless of course it is a gloriously beautiful day, then you might find a couple of mounted officers joy-riding.
The new thing these days with the NYPD is to claim that there are undercover cops everywhere. This explains why nobody EVER sees a cop in the park, right? How convenient. The truth is that there are no cops around and everyone, especially the criminals know this. That is why this stuff is happening. And we probably don’t even know a tenth of it.
Deputy Inspector McIntosh would not go to the park alone at 2:00 am. Many crimes take place in the middle of the day! How about 6pm? How about 8:39 pm — too late? Perhaps Mayor de Blasio can issue a chart telling us when we have to lock ourselves in our apartments, so the criminals can roam free like they used to in the Koch and Dinkins days.
of course, there is much less violent crime in both Central Park and NYC as a whole today than there was under Giuliani. but facts seldom matter.
Another fact: Dinkins gets a bum rap on the crime issue. Crime actually started going DOWN rapidly under Dinkins, and Dinkins was the Mayor who increased the size of the police force to deal with the issue.
Pre-conceived notions and myths don’t over-ride facts.
Oh yeah, Dinkins was a great mayor.
People like back at the Dinkins years as the good old days.
regarding Dinkins and crime: I suggest you check the facts. there are such things as facts, you know.
“Mr. Dinkins’s most lasting achievement might have been in the very area where he now fares worst in popular memory. He obtained the State Legislature’s permission to dedicate a tax to hire thousands of police officers, and he fought to preserve a portion of that anticrime money to keep schools open into the evening, an award-winning initiative that kept tens of thousands of teenagers off the street. Later he hired Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, and in the mayor’s final years in office, homicide began its now record-breaking decline.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/nyregion/26dinkins.html?_r=0
i love the way you assume what YOU think about Dinkins is what EVERYONE thinks about Dinkins.
do you look at Giuliani the same way… because not everyone thinks Giuliani was “a great Mayor.”
the city is split racially on this issue. so in many, perhaps the majority, of communities in this city, your views might not hold.
ypu might want to look into how others feel.
Bruce Bernstein: First, your facts are wrong. I have compstat access and you have to know how to interpret. Second, ask any cop who was working in those days — Rudy was the first mayor they believed in, followed by Bloomberg. Ask them how they rate the current mayor
!!
you don’t need “compstat access”… it’s all publicly available on the web.
Which facts that i cited were inaccurate?
Facts?!? Accuracy?!? hahaha
You obviously aren’t living Trump Country my friend.
On another note, it’s always interesting to me that this is the only issue that gets you to post these days. You really go on the defensive for our Mayor even though the cops themselves have no respect for the guy. Why do you think Bratton stepped down. The real story, not the article you read in the NYT.
Anyway, be safe out there everyone and remember be at home, doors locked and clutching a baseball bat by sundown…it’s like that movie The Purge out there.:)
The NYPD should offer self defense classes to the public.
“I’m a big guy, but I wouldn’t run by myself at 2 a.m. in the park.”
Technically the park closes at 1AM. But he knows that right?
The biggest concern we have as law abiding citizens of this amazing wonderful city is……. even when the criminals committing these crimes are arrested, they are let out almost immediately or too soon. These criminals need to be KEPT in jail……..
No, there need to be alternatives-to-incarceration programs to redirect youthful offenders and
keep them out of jail.
“there need to be alternatives-to-incarceration programs to redirect youthful offenders and keep them out of jail.”
Isn’t that called “parents”?
Lois, there already are many programs in effect that are alternatives to incarceration. They don’t work. A perfect example is the criminal who shot the police officer on the FDR Drive. He was in such a program. If you look at the statistics showing how many crimes are committed by repeat offenders you may think differently.
Barbara, no program works 100% of the time, but some do help many young people “turn their lives around,” for example, The Doe Fund. Jail can make a person and situation worse. Now, the kid has a record, making it harder to find legitimate employment when he or she is released. It’s not a simple matter.
bullshit – we should be skeptical – twists on srtats – I am one nervous person – Don’t they want to be be truthful ?
The 72nd street entrance to the park is dark. The lamps are either out or they are switching on and off. There needs to be more light at night.
I’ve been walking Central Park
Singing after dark
People think I’m crazy
I’ve been stumbling on my feet
Shuffling through the street
People ask me, “What’s the matter with you boy?”
Sometimes I want to say to myself
Sometimes I say
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh oooh
Oooh oooh oooh
Hey Mick! This one is my favorite….
To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough!
You got rats on the West Side Bed bugs Uptown
Go ahead, bite the Big Apple, don’t mind the maggots