By Naeisha Rose
Throughout the first half of 2018, crime across the city dropped compared to the first six months of 2017, but there has been an increase in murder and rape citywide and in the northern and southern sections of Queens, according to the NYPD’s crime statistics.
“The overall crime rate continues to fall in New York City,” said Police Commissioner James O’Neill said. “It remains our top priority to forcefully combat the spikes in murder and other crimes where we know persistent pockets of crime still exist,” .
In northern Queens (Precincts 104, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115) murder rose 33.3 percent from six in June 2017 to eight in June 2018, according to CompStat. Rape increased by 65.1 percent from June of last year to 104 this year. In June 2017 there were 63 rapes.
In the same time period in southern Queens (Precincts 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 113) murder increased by 23.5 percent to 21 from 17, according to CompStat. Rape moved up by 20.6 percent to 82 from 68.
“While crime is at a record low in New York City, there is still more work to do to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in their neighborhood,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In northern Queens, felony assaults (0.1 percent), housing crime (19.3 percent) and shooting incidences (33.3 percent) were also on the rise, according to the statistics for the June 2017 to June 2018 time period.
In southern Queens, grand larceny auto (14.3 percent) and shootings (7.7 percent) advanced over the same time period.
Citywide, shootings were down by 5.6 percent with 340 incidents reported by the first half of 2018 compared to 360 in June 2017, according to the NYPD. There was also a 8.5 percent decrease in robberies (1,092), a 2.5 percent decrease in felony assaults (1,813), a 2.3 percent decrease in burglaries (909), a 4.5 percent decrease in transit crimes (192), and a 1.3 percent decrease in grand larceny auto (459).
The crimes that dropped in the first half of the year in northern Queens included robberies (611) by 10 percent, burglaries (718) by 8.2 percent, grand larceny (267) by 0.7 percent, grand larcenies auto (341) by 11.2 percent, and transit (86) by 15.7 percent.
In southern Queens, the crimes that fell in the same time period included robberies (634) by 9.8 percent, felony assaults (1,034) by 1.4 percent, burglaries (487) by 18 percent, grand larcenies (1,438) by 8.2 percent, as well as transit (63) by 20.8 percent and housing crimes (72) by 39.5 percent.
“Our mission will always be to relentlessly pursue the relatively small percentage of criminals responsible for the majority of the violence in our city. New Yorkers deserve nothing less than our very best work in that regard – every day, in every neighborhood,” said O’Neill.
Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose
