By Thomas Tracy
Equipped with over a half-dozen new officers, cops from the 69th Precinct are taking steps to normalize a rather see-saw start to the new year. While the precinct saw a drop in robberies, assaults and burglaries this past January, overall felony crime, sparked by a slight increase in car thefts and grand larcenies, were up by six percent for the year, according to recently published crime statistics. Statistics show that 103 felony crimes were reported to the Foster Avenue stationhouse by January 28 – six more than the number of felonies reported on the same date the year before. According to the most recent CompStat reports, robberies in Canarsie were down by 17 percent (24 crimes this year versus 29 in January 2006), felony assaults had dropped by 23 percent (13 this year versus 17 last year) and burglaries had fallen by eight percent (11 versus 12). The number of car thefts in the command, however, had jumped by 33 percent, although that percentage only reflects that four more cars have been taken off the streets. The number of grand larcenies, or non-violent thefts of $1,000 or more, that include a wide swath of crimes from purse snatches to identity theft, had increased by 44 percent, from 25 in January 2006 to 36 last month. During last week’s 69th Precinct Community Council meeting, held at the Hebrew Educational Society on Seaview Avenue, commanding officer Captain Ralph Monteforte touted the drop in crime in both robberies and burglaries. The drop in robberies, he explained, had occurred thanks in part to the arrest of a young couple responsible for a series of robberies that have taken place as far back as Christmas. Monteforte said that 21-year-old Dwayne Rhoden and 17-year-old Keyoa Robinson were apprehended near the corner of Avenue L and East 82nd Street on January 19 for allegedly attempting to rob a man on the street. The officers who took the two into custody handed them over to detectives, who connected them to seven knifepoint robberies that took place in the same area since late December. Since their arrest, the number of robberies in that area has dropped, officials said. Overall, violence in Canarsie seems to be reaching a new low. Felony assaults are down and there has only been one homicide in the neighborhood since the beginning of the year – a killing that does not appear to be tied to the neighborhood at all. Detectives said that the 34-year-old victim, discovered shot in a car near the corner of East 102nd Street and Flatlands Avenue, was not a resident of Canarsie nor was he going to visit anyone in the area. Officials learned that the victim was living down South when he came to Queens to visit his family. On the night of his death, he told family members that he was going to visit friends, but none of his hometown chums live in Canarsie. The reason why he was in Canarsie remained a mystery as this paper went to press. Felony crime in Canarsie has fallen by nearly 69 percent ever since the CompStat felony crime tracking system was first adopted by the NYPD.
