Mayor Touts Drop In City Crime Rate

Mayor Bill de Blasio took to Fort Greene’s Ingersoll Houses on Tuesday, December 2 in order to tout a 4.4 percent drop in violent crime throughout the city – an improvement that he said extends to Ingersoll with an 18.6 percent reduction in crime on its grounds since this time last year.

As noted in a statement released by the mayor’s office, de Blasio added that throughout all New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, overall crime fell by 5.3 percent and homicides decreased by 7.7 percent. However, according to The New York Times, crime in some NYCHA complexes went against the reported trend and rose, as at the Bushwick Houses.

Ingersoll and 42 other NYCHA developments in Brooklyn will also be part of the NYPD’s pilot program to place body cameras on patrolling officers. The housing complexes are covered under Police Service Area 2, which is one of the regions – including the 40th Precinct in the Bronx and the 120th Precinct in Staten Island – selected for the pilot program based on their high incidence rates of stop-and-frisk.

The mayor was joined in this announcement by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, who also noted that citywide, homicides have decreased by 6.8 percent, robbery fell 14.4 percent and rape dropped 2.9 percent.

Crime levels also reportedly dropped on the public transit system, by 13.8 percent, and robbery – including of iPhones – fell by 29 percent.