Brooklyn Crime Statistics: Shootings and Robberies on the Rise, Murders and Rape Down

Overall crime numbers have risen citywide by 16.4% in January in comparison to last year, according to NYPD crime statistics released Tuesday.

Shootings, robbery, assault, burglary, and grand larceny rates all went up, while there was a citywide drop in murder by 19.4%, 18.2% drop in rape, and a 24% drop in hate crimes.

At a press conference yesterday, New York City’s Police Commissioner, Dermot Shea, reiterated that the state’s new bail law was at fault for a sharp rise last month in serious crimes.

The new bail law dictates judges cannot set bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including assault without serious injury, burglary, and robbery. This means most individuals arrested for non-violent crimes will be released while their cases are pending.

When answering a question whether there is any evidence from January arrests that any of those people were released because of the new bail law who would not have been released under the old law, Shea said, “With the passing of the new law, we saw pretty, pretty – pretty dramatic increase in the people that were let out of Rikers in accordance with the law and that’s something that we will deal with. […] we have seen examples of people getting post-January 1 and then getting rearrested.”

In 2019 crime in New York City was at another record low, that is, if you look at the total number of reported incidents, we wrote earlier in January. NYPD reports there were 872 fewer incidents in 2019 than in 2018, however, hate-crimes were on the rise, as were murders, robberies, and assaults.

Hate crimes, particularly those against the Jewish community, increased citywide by a shocking 26% in 2019, with a 67% total increase in religion-based hate crimes, prompting increased patrols in Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Jewish populations, including Williamsburg, Midwood, and Crown Heights. This January there was a drop in reported anti-Semitic incidents of 16%.

In January 2020, Brooklyn North saw a drop in murder by almost 64%,  rape numbers stayed the same as this time last year, but the total number of reported crime rose by 14.6%: Robberies are up 14.3%, assault by 22.4%, burglaries by 31.5% and grand larcenies by 4.5%. There was a 28.6% increase in shooting victims.

Brooklyn South, on the other hand, saw no change in murder statistics, and the number of rapes reported dropped by almost 27%. In comparison to the previous year, Brooklyn South similarly saw a rise in total crimes of 9.1%: Robberies are up by almost 30%, assault by 15.6%, burglaries by 3.1% and grand larcenies by 4.3%. Shooting victims almost doubled from 5 last year to 9 this year so far.

“While we are sober about the challenges we faced last month, the NYPD will use data and targeted enforcement to fight crime,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement.