The 61st Precinct recently showed record drops in crime across the board in the year end CompStat numbers. CompStat is the name given to the Police Department’s accountability process. The precinct had the second largest crime drop in the city, the Central Park precinct came in 1st.
Here are some of the stats.
- 26 percent drop in crime by the end of 2009 .
- 41 percent drop in crime during the first week of 2010. When compared to the first week of 2009.
- 36 percent drop in robberies.
- 30 percent drop in car thefts.
- 25 percent drop in burglaries.
- 460 crimes for the year.
The Compstat program that made NYPD commanders accountable for controlling crime has degenerated into a situation where the police leadership presses subordinates to keep numbers low by any means necessary.
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I have friends on the job, though not in the 61st, who have told me the same.
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N.Y.C.P.D. can change the Compstat numbers to show whatever they want you to see, especially sine Ray Kelly is Bloomberg's puppet.
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Don't believe everything you read. it is very easy to manipulate the wording of a report to make it a minor crime (that nobody keeps track of) out of a major crime. NYPD keeps track of 7 major crimes…Murder,Rape,Robbery,Burglary,Grandlarceny,GrandLarceny Auto and Felony Assault. I retired a few years ago and yes it is common practice. E.I.. if your garage got broken into and property is taken that is Burglary. But the Police Officer comes and writes the report he often gets pressure from superiors to make it Criminal mischief for breaking door and petit larceny if property taken is worth less than $1,000. neither of which crimes nobody cares about. If your car is stolen and somehow recovered in a timely manner the report may read unauthorized use of motor veh. instead of grandlarceny auto.
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NYPD has made remarkable strides in in dropping crime.No one can take that away or say otherwise, dropping murders by 2/3s from highs at the end of the Dinkins Administration. But here are other factors that come into play that are yo large degrees beyond the control of NYPD-improving economy(until recently!), drops in drugs use(especially crack cocaine), broken windows enforcement policies that have locked up long-term repeat violent felons, gentrification of formely-bad areas, diversion programs that allow low level criminal addicts to get treatment. And Compstat started as a very good thing, allocating resources to high-crime areas.
However as noted above it has become a numbers game, with commanders being advanced or downgraded based solely on such numbers. And in some high crime areas short of a police state there's no way to impact the crime reductions without mischief and numbers changing. It's the biggest underreported story in this city. Increasingly it seems Ray kelly got his start in Vietnam doing body counts for Westmoreland, and applied those lessons here.
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In fairness I have no idea nor any information that the current commander of the 61st Precinct has engaged in such shennanigans. But know for a fact many precinct captains have played such games.
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I read that in the whole south brooklyn area the 61 crime went down the most, so how come the captain didn't get rewarded, shouldn't he get a pat on the back or a promotion from Kelly.
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Its all BS, they play with the numbers every day, try reporting a text book letter of the law type Burglary like something stolen from a garage it won't be recorded as a Burglary maybe a Larceny or how about when something of value is taken from a car they talk you out of it saying crap that your insurance maybe effected…. Its amazing PD is looking for less work while everyone else is looking for more
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It is all a numbers game, you can't believe a thing that comes out of the city government anymore. Of course when you call the cops for something and they refuse to take a report or downgrade the crime, their stats look great. The same thing is happening in the schools. The tests have been dumbed down and so of course the kids seem to be doing better. Those parent surveys are a joke that are completely manipulated by administrations. They either change the ones they don't like or throw them away, if parents were required to mail those surveys to an independent place the results would be totally different. But then how would the mayor "prove" what a great job he's doing? I can't believe what a farce this is.
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Amen!
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Is that why cops sit there for 20 minutes trying to talk you out of making a report. The less people who make reports Equals less crimes equals less cops assigned to the pct. from new academy classes. The numbers can only go down so far at some point they have to go up let's hope the community is not put at risk by this numbers game. Every community needs more Cops not just the one that can't behave themselve. If something happens report it even little things broken car windows, graffiti, something stolen from your yard or car don't let the cops talk you out of it your only hurting yourself and your neighbor. If the numbers keep going down the 61pct will have less cars on patrol and it will take the 3 hours to get to your emergency instead of 1 hour. How many cops did the 61 get from the last academy class???? Zero the Numbers say we don't need any…
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It's sad. The 61st does try to stop you from filing reports or at least lessen the charges. I had brand new tires and rims stolen from my car…they refused to put the actual cost of the tires & rims b/c the officer was clearly an "expert" on tire depreciation. I was harassed by a man with a knife…they conveniently misplaced my report. Then a close family member had something stolen from his house and they refused to do a report, they were more concerned about questioning why he wasn't living in the house at the time. I cannot believe how this precinct works, it is a travesty.
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That is sooo true. They don't even get out of the car! you have to stand there and try and convince them to do something. And the 63rd is the same. And I'll bet it's the same in every precinct. I'll bet that in Bed Sty if you try and report a hit and run or a theft, they aren't interested either.
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I had the same experience with the 61, they will discorage you from making a report.
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How many times are they called and don't respond, one less crime reported
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A few months back several cars were broken into on my block. They figured out i had a removable radio in this 16 year old car which i never removed. They broke the gear shifter to remove the radio which also messed up inserting and removing the ignition key. They also tossed the car making a mess. Several of my neighbors also suffered similar fate. The police were called they finally arrived and surveyed the situation then got back in the police car and began writing. We assumed they were doing paper work related to this crime, when all of a sudden they just drove away and were never seen again. So this is true what is being stated here on this blog about these asshole cops controling the crime numbers by ignoring crimes.
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Lets also face the fact that the area of the 61 isn't exactly Bed Stuy, a rhesus monkey could get the crime down.
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About 2 years ago, I rented an apartment on Brown Street between V and U. My Palestinian landlord, wife and 3 children lived in the street level apartment. I called the police when I heard him beating his wife so hard that she was banging off the walls, while the children screamed. 2 Police cars (4 cops) responded. They spoke to me, and I filled them in on the situation. The whole time, all you could hear was screaming from the apartment below. The police knocked on the door and left when no one answered. I called 911 again, and the operator said "Well, if they don't answer the door what do you want them to do?"
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That is so sad! I had similar experiences calling cops on wife beaters years ago. They are so cynical and can just shrug it off. I'm sure though that if 1.3 million cops a were being beaten in their own homes every year they would do something about it.
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Glad to hear things are so great – actually it had been awhile since I was in fear for my life when trying to walk my dogs on Gerritsen Avenue in the old section. Until this week – all of a sudden this week the racing & donuts have started up again. Last night I was left in a cloud of noxious fumes.
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So what's the problem?
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