The 70th Precinct ended 2009 on a high note, with another significant drop in overall crime.
The precinct %u2013 which covers Midwood, Flatbush and Kensington %u2013 was down about 300 crimes for the year, reported Deputy Inspector Ralph Monteforte during the January meeting of Community Board 14. The overall crime reduction in 2009, compared to 2008, was 12.9 percent, as of December 27, 2009.
The stats mean that there were “over 300 less victims in 2009 than in 2008,” Monteforte, the precinct’s commanding officer, told board members gathered in the cafeteria at Edward R. Murrow High School, 1600 Avenue L.
In particular, robberies were “way down” in the precinct, Monteforte said.
“Hopefully, we can continue that again this year,” Monteforte said.
The effort will be helped by the fact that the precinct will not be losing personnel. “The best news is that all the non-hiring of police officers is not affecting the 70th Precinct,” Monteforte said.
“We’re still keeping the same number of police officers,” he went on, stressing, “That’s very important, because without those extra officers, we could see the numbers start to go up in the street again.”
In the 70th Precinct, in 2009, according to CompStat, there were nine murders, 11 rapes, 382 robberies, 336 felonious assaults, 368 burglaries, 757 grand larcenies and 211 incidents of grand larceny auto, for a total of 2,074 crimes in the seven major crime categories.
Those numbers translate into a 66.7 percent decline in rapes, a 26.9 percent drop in robberies, an 11.8 percent decrease in grand larcenies, a 10.1 percent decline in burglaries, and a 3.8 percent drop in the number of felonious assaults.
There were two crime categories that saw increases in the 70th Precinct in 2009. Those were murder, up 28.6 percent, and GLA, up four percent.
The percentages quoted reflect the crime statistics as of December 27, 2009.
