Friday, January 05, 2007

Don't Worry: Park Slope Crime is Down

For all of the discussion about crime in Park Slope recently, it turns out that crime, according to statistics from the 78th Precinct was down in 2006. Overall crime apparently fell by five percent and robberies dropped by 20 percent. (The decrease in robbery since 1993 has been 78 percent.) Also, if you remember the stories about crime in Prospect Park from the spring (teen "wolf packs" ring a bell?), crime in the park was down 29 percent, with robberies down by 30 percent. None of this is helpful or of comfort, of course, if one becomes a statistic, but if the numbers are to believed (and there are always questions about data and the entire issue of actual crime versus reported crime), the odds of being victimized actually fell in 2006.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had my bike stolen out of my apartment last week and called the 78th precinct. They told me I had to come down to the station to file a complaint - they wouldn't take it over the phone, nor would they send officers over. The station is about a mile from my apartment and, given the low probability that my bike will be recovered, I may not bother reporting it.

When did the police start requiring people to come to the station to report certain crimes? By making it more difficult to report a crime, this policy probably lowers reported crime. If it is a recent policy, that could be one reason for the lower crime numbers.

3:01 PM  

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