The numbers are down in the Four-Five.
And that’s good news for the East Bronx’s 45th Precinct when it comes to crime. It ranked 66th out of 77 precincts citywide in 2013, according to official NYPD figures.
Serious crime in the precinct continued to decline, decreasing by 5.8% compared with 2012.
Low Crime
Already low crime numbers continued to fall, with the major categories of rape decreasing 47.1%, robbery dipping 14.7%, felony assault down 13.3% and burglary declining 24.6%.
“There were big decreases in robberies, burglaries and assaults, and we are really happy to see that,” said the precinct’s commander, Captain James McGeown. “Those are the violent types crimes that we really keyed on and we are very happy to see decreases there.”
There were slight increases in grand larceny and grand larceny auto, up 8.7% and 6.6% respectively. When it comes to grand larceny, some of that might be attributed to citywide/nationwide trends of thefts of cell phones, as well as expensive car parts, such as fancy tire rims.
The number of shooting victims held steady in 2013 with nine compared with eight the previous year, and as did shooting incidents with eight in 2013 compared with seven in 2012.
Long-Term Trends
The only other major crime category to register a rise in complaints was murder, which rose to five in 2013 from two in 2012, but was down over 70% when compared with 20 years ago. Four of the five murder cases recorded this year have been solved, the captain said.
Overall major crime in the precinct is down over 73% when compared to 20 years ago.
“I have got to thank all of the hardworking men and women of the 45th Precinct, for all of their hard work, including Lieutenant Paul Trapani and his speciality units and the detective squad,” said McGeown. “In addition, I think that the excellent partnership with the community, with the local elected officials and community groups, is invaluable. We exchange information, ideas, keep them involved – it is a good partnership and I think it helps to keep things safe here in the four-five.”
Community Policing
McGeown said that among the successful initiatives involving community engagement were a very successful 45th Precinct Community Council Breakfast in May, National Night Out which brought together community and police in Co-op City in September, and a successful busy season for City Island this year with traffic agents and police officers working together to ensure that traffic moved.
There was also a successful graffiti cleanup in November organized by precinct’s Crime Prevention Officer Erin Rabbitt and Community Affairs Officers Anne Marie Morrison and John Souhrada, Senator Jeff Klein’s office, and Community Board 10’s chairman John Marano, among many who made it a success.
The captain also thanked Assistant Chief Carlos Gomez, the Bronx Borough commander, for the addition of 20 new officers to the precinct this year, the largest group of new officers to reach the precinct in years.
