83rd Commander: We’re Fourth In Improvement
The 83rd Precinct is having one of its “best years in a long time,” officials told the 83rd Precinct Community Council during a meeting last Tuesday, Apr. 16, at the command’s Bushwick stationhouse.
Year to date, overall crime is down by 20 percent across the seven major categories used to analyze crime, said Deputy Inspector Anthony
Tasso, the precinct’s commanding officer.
“Out of 76 precincts in the city, we’re doing better than 72,” Tasso added.
“The precinct is doing a fantastic job-hats off to the officers,” said Nancy Luxer, an executive assistant district attorney with the Kings County District Attorney’s Office.
For the year, auto thefts and burglaries are down 35 percent and 32 percent respectively, while felony as- saults and robberies are down 25 percent each.
Only more grand larcenies have been reported this year than this time last year-they are up 14 percent versus 2012.
Murders remain stagnant with three reported this year and three reported this time last year, and while there have been fewer rapes in 2013 than 2012, the numbers have spiked over the last month.
Tasso told the council many rapes are domestic or statutory, but one that occurred over the “last weekend”- he declined to give a date-was perpetrated by a stranger.
Tasso called the rape one of three disturbing crimes that occurred over one weekend and put a black mark on what was still a relatively good month for the 83rd precinct. The other two incidents were the homicide of a livery cab driver and the shooting of a man in the eye with a BB gun.
He said the homicide did not appear to be a random-the last customer in the cab requested that specific car number, leading police to believe the assailant planned to shoot that specific driver. Detectives are still investigating, he said.
The incident involving a BB gun occurred in front of a bar on Wilson Avenue near Jefferson Street. The victim stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and an unknown assailant fired a BB gun at him, hitting him in the eye.
Tasso told the audience that BB guns do not carry the same penalty as regular firearms unless they are used in the commission of a crime such as a robbery.
The case was particularly disturbing because it appeared to be a random act of violence, he said.
Though they are not counted among the seven major crimes used to calculate “overall crime,” Taso noted shootings are also down for the year.
There have been five reported shooting incidents this year versus seven this time list year. Three incidents occurred between Mar. 28 and Apr. 14, records show.
Black market busts
Community Board 4 member Robert Camacho shared a trick for locating stolen goods.
He said thieves stole the wheels off his neighbor’s rental car overnight, and another neighbor helped them locate the stolen goods in a matter of minutes.
The morning after the theft, Camacho and the victim were talking about the incident. Another neighbor heard the conversation, went upstairs and grabbed his computer, and, in a matter of minutes, located wheels for sale matching the description on the online classified website Craigslist.com, Camacho said.
When Camacho’s neighbor reported the theft, officers in the 83rd Precinct said they couldn’t do anything, he told the crowd.
Tasso told Camacho the officers should have tried to recover the wheels and that he would look into the case.
Tasso told the council the precinct’s detective squad recently recovered a stolen laptop using the same method. After it was reported stolen, detectives found it on craigslist, set up a meeting in a public space near the precinct to purchase the computer, sent plainclothes officers and busted the thief.
The perp admitted to a series of burglaries in the precinct and was locked up, he added.
“Little things lead to big things,” Tasso said.
The 83rd Precinct Community Council generally meets on the third Tuesday each month at 6:30 p.m. at the stationhouse located at Knickerbocker Avenue and Bleecker Street in Bushwick.
