The 69th Precinct has gotten a handle on Canarsie’s robbery problem.
“We’re definitely bucking the trend,” Captain Milt Marmara told members of the 69th Precinct Community Council Tuesday, claiming that the number of robberies in the command has dropped over the last month, although it is still up 8 percent for the year.
According to recent CompStat numbers, 172 robberies have been reported to Canarsie police officers as of September 28. By the same date in 2007, 158 robberies had taken place.
“We had an up-tick in robberies over the summer, but over the last month, we’ve seen a 30 percent reduction in robberies,” Marmara explained. “We’ve had 17 robbery arrests in recent weeks. We’re catching these guys on the streets and getting as much information we can to make more arrests.”
Marmara said that still one of the hottest items to steal is SideKick cell phones.
“A lot of your children are being robbed of their SideKicks,” he said. “They’re texting while their walking in the streets…it’s starting to be a crime of opportunity for these thieves. But I’d like to see zero people being robbed in Canarsie.”
Statistics show that between the end of August and the end of September, 15 robberies occurred in Canarsie. During the same four weeks in 2007, 22 robberies had taken place.
Marmara said that there was a slight increase in felony assaults over the past month, but nearly all of them are domestic violence related, be it between family members, boyfriends and girlfriends and husbands and wives.
“We’re monitoring the homes that seem to be prone to violence,” he said.
His officers are also taking a careful look at homes in general, since burglaries are up by 10 percent for the year – a trend that didn’t seem to dwindle over the past month.
Statistics show that 144 homes, apartments and businesses had been broken into by the end of September. In 2007, 131 burglaries had been reported to the 69th Precinct.
The number of car thefts in the community has also increased over the past amount, but by a small amount, when you consider Canarsie’s history with car thieves and its close proximity to the Belt Parkway.
“We’re up three stolen cars for the month – 25 versus 22 from the same month last year,” he said. “That’s a 13 percent increase for the month, but Canarsie has seen a 90 percent decrease in car thefts over the last fifteen years.”
Marmara said that back in 1993, when the NYPD adopted their CompStat tracking system, over 2000 cars had been stolen.
“Canarsie was very prone to cars being stolen back then,” he said. “Last year, only 200 cars were stolen. This is a solid middle class community. I don’t want it to become a target for opportunistic car thieves.”
As of September 28, 869 felony crimes had been reported to the 69th Precinct – four more than last year.
Over the last fifteen years, felony crime in Canarsie has dropped nearly 72 percent, statistics show.
