84th Precinct: Crime Down 78% In Past Two Decades, 10% Over Past Year

By on August 10, 2012 11:27 am in Brooklyn Heights, crime, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Events, Other Brooklyn, Police Blotter

Crime has caved 78% in the 84th Precinct over the last two decades and 10% over the past year, according to the 84th Precinct Community Council—comprising the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, DUMBO and Vinegar Hill. An all-out celebration of safety was held Tuesday at Borough Hall for the 29th-annual “National Night Out Against Crime,” which builds relationships between cops and the communities they police.

Leslie Lewis, president of the 84th Precinct Council for 22 years, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “We’re here to celebrate the success of the partnership between the community and the police. When this all started, it was too dangerous to walk around at night; nobody was on the streets. Now there are people on the streets, development everywhere. It’s a very different world. Because of the success of the partnership, developers started to spend money and encourage people to move here. It’s directly related.”

Cops from the 84th precinct grilled up hundreds of burgers and hotdogs at Tuesday’s celebration, with Deputy Inspector Mark Di Paolo serving as ringleader. He told the Eagle, “When it first began in 1984, this was a night where the community came out to feel safe, not victimized. Now, 29 years later, it’s more to celebrate how this partnership brought safety to the community.”

Crime is down 10% in the 84th Precinct overall this year, and down 5% in robberies, 22% in felony assault, and 60% in stolen cars.

Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that the 84th Precinct “is very responsive to local community needs as well as keeping a handle on the bigger issues in the precinct—terror targets, the bridge, etc. They give equal attention to big and little stuff.”

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  • Emily

    We have a police station around here? I’ve been in the Heights (4 years now (lived in Carroll Gardens most of my life) and have never seen a station around here other then the 76th precinct on Union st in Carroll gardens. In fact I hardly see police around here and even less at night. This area is empty and way too dark late at night, I wish the cops were around.

  • Willowtowncop

    7 people were shot the other day during the national night out against crime – in the Bronx, East New York, and Harlem. Because of its success, the 84 will be lucky to get any new cops at all for a long time. When I worked in Brownsville, there were 75 cops on foot in a 5 square block radius every night and it wasn’t enough – there was still a shooting almost every night. If there was a cop in the lobby of a building, there would be a shooting on the 14th floor. It would be nice, but taking a cop away from any of these places to walk around here because something worse than a purse snatch might happen is a hard sell.

  • Mr. Crusty

    Yeah, it’s dark at night, can’t somebody do something about that?

  • Gardener

    I don’t get it – I pay taxes but since another neighborhood has more active crime they should get more of the police force time/attention? Is that the argument? I think all tax paying residents of this great city have an equal right to constant police protection and safe streets.

  • Mr. Crusty

    @Gardener “I don’t get it – I pay taxes but since another neighborhood has more active crime they should get more of the police force time/attention? Is that the argument”

    Yes, of course that is the argument. Police manpower is allocated on need not how much taxes you pay. I know you must think how lucky those people are to live in neighborhoods with higher crime rates to get the extra attention.

    There is an unbelievable sense of entitlement that some BH residents display. Here is an article showing how much crime has decreased in the neighborhood and how much safer our streets are and you have some complaining that “others” get more attention. Nauseating.

  • Willowtowncop

    It’s just like all other government services – poor people pay less taxes and get a larger share of public schools, housing, transportation, food stamps, etc. than rich people do.

  • Jazz

    yet we are all stuck with the same xenophobic idiot know it all trigger happy police farce

  • thesimplest

    The simplest thing they could do in our neighborhood is just get better streetlights on all the poorly lit blocks. There are many blocks that are far too dark. It’s an easy, cheap fix, and would almost certainly reduce the number of muggings – not that we’re exactly living in the Thunderdome here. There’s just no reason *not* to fix this small but serious problem.

  • Willowtowncop

    Xenophobic is a nice big word, Jazz – except it hardly applies to the NYPD. From the NY Times: “Of the 5,593 officers hired since July 2006, when the department began tracking the nationalities of police officers, 1,042 of them were foreign-born — hailing from 88 countries, according to department records.” I guess all the rest of them must be racists because they were born here, right? You’d be hard pressed to find a more diverse organization anywhere.

  • x

    We should form the Brooklyn Heights Neighborhood Watch.

    We don’t need no police, except Willowtowncop of course :)

  • Mr. Crusty

    @Jazz that was a truly asinine comment.

  • Math Major

    As far as darkness and muggings, I feel like most neighborhood muggings reported here and in the Brooklyn Paper take place in broad daylight.

  • Wiley E.

    I went to the 84th Precinct last week to report a package theft from my lobby. They wouldn’t take the complaint. They said I would have to take it up with UPS, the 84th wouldn’t handle it.

    Now, UPS leaves the package at the post office, and a postal employee leaves the package in the lobby. (?)

    Maybe crime isn’t really down; the police just aren’t taking as many complaints as before.

  • BH’er

    I see cops around quite frequently and they’re pretty good about responding to calls

    We’ve called twice with noise complaints late at night and both times we put up with the noise too long – 5 minutes after our call, the problem drove away – 5 minutes after that, a cruiser arrived

    I can’t wait until they catch these guys – really don’t like the late night parked cars with loud bass (one was a raging argument inside a car that went on for an hour)

    Neighborhood Watch is a good idea