Queens Crime At The Mid-Year Point

Continuing a steady seven-year decline, the Queens crime rate dropped another nine percent during the first six months of this year, according to police records obtained by The Queens Courier.
The latest six-month report showed 2,000 fewer robberies, assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies, and auto thefts (20,792 vs. 22,767) than in the same period last year.
Offsetting these borough improvements, the sharply rising number of rape cases has countered a general citywide downward trend by soaring a dramatic 15 percent (from 183 to 210).
Local murder cases increased two percent, similar to the slower rising pace of the rest of the city. Queens rising homicide rate continues a trend started last year which had reversed a steady seven-year decline.
Official figures from Queens District Attorney Richard A. Browns office show an annual decline in homicides, from 361 in 1993 to last years 119, during the past decade.
Last month, a concerned Queens Borough President Claire Shulman invited the heads of the Police Departments Queens North and Queens South commands to outline their crime-fighting strategies to members of the Queens Borough Board.
Dealing with a support system that has not kept pace with the boroughs diverse and rapidly expanding population, Shulman has called for the borough to receive its fair share of enforcement personnel and equipment.
A key barometer of crimefighters efforts to curb Queens felonies, is the 74 percent drop of local car thefts during the last decade. "Were glad that auto thefts have gone down, but the figures are still too high, and more work remains to be done," declared Senator Frank Padavan.
During the first half of 1991, car thefts averaged 137 per day  or about six per hour giving Queens the dubious title of the countrys car theft capital. Current Queens car theft averages show six are now stolen every four hours, and nearly four of every ten cars stolen in New York City are taken in Queens.
The six-month figures are a mixture of good and bad news:
 The reduction of Queens felonies are proceeding at a slightly faster pace than the rest of the city.
Queens is the only borough showing an increase in rapes.
Queens is enjoying sharper declines in robberies, assaults, and burglaries.
 Although grand larcenies and auto thefts are declining in Queens, they are dropping at a lower pace than the rest of the city.