Crime continues to decline in southwest Brooklyn

From Bensonhurst and Gravesend through Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge, to Sunset Park and Greenwood Heights, crime continued to go down in 2017.

The 68th Precinct, which covers Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights, showed an overall decrease in the seven index crimes (murder, rape, robbery, felonious assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto or GLA) of 4.72 percent over 2016, as of December 31, 2017.

That represents a total of 847 crimes reported in 2017 as compared to 889 in 2016. The categories that showed decreases were robbery (down 10.2 percent, with 79 last year as opposed to 88 the year before), felonious assault (down 17.5 percent, with 113 in 2017 compared to 137 in 2016), burglary (down 6.8 percent, with 124 in 2017 compared to 133 the prior year) and GLA (down 5.9 percent, with 95 incidents in 2017 as compared to 101 in 2016.

Murders were flat, year to year, with three in both 2016 and 2017. Reported rapes were up 44.4 percent, with 13 in 2017, compared to nine the previous year. Finally, grand larcenies inched up ever so slightly, 0.5 percent, with 420 in 2017 compared to 418 in 2016.

Shooting victims and incidents were way down. There was one shooting incident with a single victim in 2017, compared to three incidents with six victims the previous year, for decreases of 66.7 and 83.3 percent respectively.

In the neighboring 72nd Precinct in Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, South Park Slope and Greenwood Heights, crime overall was down 4.39 percent, year over year, with 1,089 crimes in 2017, compared to 1,139 in 2016. That included decreases in all categories except burglaries, which were up 2.1 percent, with 144 in 2017, compared to 141 in 2016.

Murders were down 50 percent, with two in 2017, compared to four the prior year. Rapes were down 12.5 percent, with 21 reported in 2017, as opposed to 24 in 2016. Robberies were down 12.4 percent; there were 170 in 2017, and 194 the previous year. The number of felonious assaults dropped from 241 in 2016 to 225 in 2016, for a decrease of 6.6 percent. Grand larcenies were down 1.2 percent, with 419 in 2017, compared to 424 in 2016, and GLAs were down 2.7 percent, with 108 last year compared to 111 the year before.

The number of shooting victims and shooting incidents both declined. There were two of each in 2017, compared to seven victims and six incidents in 2016, for a decrease of 71.4 percent and 66.7 percent respectively.

Finally, the 62nd Precinct in Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Gravesend showed an overall crime decrease of 0.44 percent, with 1,124 crimes in 2017 compared with 1,129 in 2016.

That number includes decreases in robbery, down 2.4 percent, with 166 in 2017 as compared to 170 in 2016; felonious assault, down 8.6 percent, with 181 last year compared to 198 the year before; and GLA, down 26 percent, from 104 in 2016 to 77 in 2017.

The other four categories showed increases. There was one murder in 2017, compared to none the prior year; 14 rapes, two more than in 2016, for an increase of 16.7 percent; 198 burglaries, up 17.9 percent from 2016, when there were 168; and 487 grand larcenies, an increase of 2.1 percent from the 477 logged in 2016.

The number of shooting incidents remained steady; there were two each in 2016 and 2017, but the number of shooting victims declined from three in 2016 to two in 2017.

Citywide, crime decreased overall 5.42 percent, from 102,052 incidents in 2016 to 96,517 in 2017. Shooting incidents were down 20.8 percent from 997 in 2016 to 790 in 2016, and the number of shooting victims was down 20.7 percent, from 1,181 in 2016 to 937 in 2017.

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