Of the seven major crimes measured by the New York City Police Department, rape, robbery and auto theft were all down in Lower Manhattan’s First Precinct in 2012 compared to 2011. On the other hand, felonious assault increased by 16 percent, and burglary increased by about 21 percent from 2011.
The First Precinct, a single square mile, covers Battery Park City, Bowling Green, Tribeca, Hudson Square, Soho and City Hall.
New York City is poised to set a 50-year low record for murder, with 416 murders reported in 2012 (the N.Y.P.D. has not yet released numbers for the week starting Dec. 31, 2012). That statistic decreased 18.8 percent, from 512 murders reported at this point in 2011 — the difference of 96 lives. The next lowest record was in 2009 with 471 homicides reported.
However, in the First Precinct, the official figures were reversed — no murders were reported in 2011, but one was reported in 2012. The First Precinct and the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information’s office did not reply to queries about the homicide but it was likely the 1979 murder of Etan Patz in Soho, which was not classified a murder until last year.
There were also two non-fatal shooting incidents, and victims, in 2012 in the First Precinct — while none were reported in 2011.
Theft of Apple products has reportedly skyrocketed in the past few years, including 2012. As iPods, iPhones and iPads become more commonly carried, so too are they becoming the preferred targets for thieves. The Deputy Commissioner of Public Information’s office said that there would be a slight decrease in crime citywide had it not been for the increase in Apple product theft, the Wall Street Journal reported.
There was a nominal decrease of 0.5 percent in grand larceny in the First Precinct from 2011. In fact, in the strict number of crime complaints recorded at this point in 2011 and 2012, the total crime in the First Precinct in unchanged. There were exactly 1,405 criminal complaints reported in both years.
—Kaitlyn Meade
