New York City is making waves: Crime plummets in Queens, city

New York City

When the final crime statistics come in next week, New York City is expected to see the fewest number of murders since the city began keeping statistics in 1963. Overall crime is down nearly 11 percent throughout the city with Queens crime seeing a 10 percent decrease compared to last year’s numbers.

“The numbers are staggering: since 2001, we’ve driven murder down by 29 percent, rape down by 38 percent, robbery down by 34 percent – the list goes on,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who made the announcement during the Monday, December 28, NYPD graduation ceremony where 250 police officers were installed.

NYPD crime statistics through December 27 of this year showed that 461 murders took place in New York City compared to 516 that took place during the same period last year. This year is expected to mark the eighth year in a row where murders were under 600 – something that had not happened during a single year since the 1960s.

In Queens, overall crime in Patrol Borough Queens North and Patrol Borough Queens South dropped by nearly 10 percent – similar to the reductions throughout the city.

Patrol Borough Queens South saw a nearly 28 percent drop in murders through December 27 compared with this time last year. Patrol Borough Queens South was one of the few areas where the murder rate soared in 2008, causing local legislators and residents to express concern about the spike in violent crime.

“I’m in general grateful for all of the proactive efforts of Patrol Borough Queens South and their commanding officers for trying to reduce crime, increase contacts in the community and develop more links with the youngsters in the community,” said City Councilmember Leroy Comrie, who represents neighborhoods in southeast Queens.

Comrie specifically credited the work of Thomas V. Dale, the Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Queens South, who Comrie said has done a great job with limited resources, a sentiment echoed by Queens Borough President Helen Marshall.

“While we would like to have more officers on the streets we are gratified that every Queens Precinct saw a crime decrease,” Marshall said in a statement. “The number of murders in Queens has decreased from 95 to 79 but any murder is one too many. We still need to get all illegal guns off our streets and that is a task that our communities must share with our Police Department.”

Meanwhile, leaders also said that the reduction in crime citywide this year was even more impressive considering the downturn in the economy, which has often yielded upticks in violent crime.

“The conventional wisdom is that when the economy suffers crime goes up, but we’ve never accepted that premise,” Bloomberg said. “Despite the downturn, New York City – already the safest big city in the nation – became even safer in 2009, and we’re committed to building on our progress in 2010.”