NYPD To Track Crime In Queens’ Parks

Mayor Bloomberg signed in law a measure called PARKSTAT that requires the NYPD to report all felony crimes in 20 of New York City’s largest parks. The bill’s sponsors, Councilmembers Peter Vallone Jr. and Joseph Addabbo Jr., hope that the law will lead the police department to collect data on crimes for all of the city’s parks.
With PARKSTAT, lawmakers aim to combine statistics gathered by various police precincts, which they say do not accurately reflect crime occurring specifically in the borough’s parks.
“For instance, Forest Park borders and is in the 104, 102, 112, and 75 precincts, in 3 different patrol boroughs (Queens North, Queens South and Brooklyn North); Flushing Meadows Park is covered by the 110, 107 and 112 precincts,” states the legislation, originally named Intro 470.
Before the law was passed, the NYPD was not required to collect crime statistics specifically for parks outside of Manhattan. Only in Central Park, which has its own police precinct, could crime statistics be analyzed exclusively for the parkland.
Vallone said he pushed for the legislation after a 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in Astoria Park, which is located several blocks from where he resides.
“For now on when it comes to crime in parks New Yorkers will no longer be left in the dark,” Vallone said.
Among crimes reported in Queens’ parks in the past year have been the body of a man found off Rockaway Beach, a body found in Forest Park, a shooting of a 15-year-old boy who fired a bullet into his own leg, the sexual assault of two boys, ages 11 and 13, the suicide of a man wanted for shooting his former-girlfriend to death, and the murder of a 17-year-old boy.
“While crime will not deter all New Yorkers from using their parks it does shake our confidence in freely enjoying the City’s open space,” said Christian DiPalermo, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, a parks advocacy organization that has pushed for this law for over two years. “ This is a great first step to ensure that our parks are safe … By tracking and reporting crime, you inform the parks users rather than scare them … It allows the city and park users to see where the problem is and allocate the necessary resources.”