The new decade has seen an increase in crime reported in the 76th Precinct, police statistics show.
All major categories, save for one, are up for the year for the week ending Jan. 31 — but overall, there have been only four more incidents reported in 2010 so far, compared with the year prior, representing an 8.7 percent increase.
For the year so far, grand larceny is down 22.2 percent (22 incidents vs. 18 in 2009); car thefts have risen 20 percent (six vs. five); and burglaries are up 12.5 percent (nine vs. eight), the statistics indicate. Felonious assaults are up as well, with seven incidents reported this year, compared to six last year, for a 16.7 percent pop. Captain Kenneth Corey, the commanding officer of the precinct, said arrests have been made in all the assault cases.
The top cop said the burglary increases can be attributed to three separate patterns — two in Red Hook, and one in Carroll Gardens — that have occurred simultaneously, starting at the end of last year. “It’s unusual to have three at the same time, but in all three, we made arrests,”he said. The Red hook incidents involved a commercial burglary, as well as a series of residential burglaries; in Carroll Gardens, the suspect was snatching bicycles from the hallways of multi-family buildings.
There has been one murder reported, and no rapes reported so far, compared to none for the same period last year. Corey said cops have fingered a person of interest in the murder, which occurredin an apartment on Lorraine Street near Otsego Street just before 4:30 p.m. on February 1. The victim died at the scene.
Only robberies have dropped, save for robberies, which have declined by 33.3 percent.
A total of 50 incidents in total have been reported, compared to 46 last year, for the same period. The precinct, typically among the top three safest in the city, covers Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill, and Gowanus.
-—Gary Buiso