Murders, rapes and robberies have shot up in the Big Apple this year, despite a drop in overall crime, police statistics show.
Homicides jumped nearly 10 percent, to 377, compared with 344 for the same time period in 2007, according to statistics recorded through Sept. 21. If the trend continues, the city will end the year with about 550 killings, compared to 496 last year, the lowest in nearly four decades.
Faced with a looming $90 million budget cut and an already shrinking force, the NYPD will be hard-pressed to hold the line against violence – especially considering that overtime, the principal weapon in blanketing trouble spots, will likely be slashed, insiders and observers agree. The department has gone from a high of 41,000 cops to about 36,000.
NYPD spokesman Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said it was “premature” to speculate where Commissioner Raymond Kelly and his budget cutters will slash. But he said “Operation Impact” programs that have been successfully targeting crime hotspots – and which rely mainly on overtime cops – will continue.
The nearly double-digit jump in murders stems largely from increases in Queens and The Bronx, the statistics show. Illegal handguns continue to be blamed for the rise in shootings.
Browne noted that while murders are up “over last year’s dramatic low,” the figure remains 8.5 percent below 2006 levels and 17.5 percent lower than 2001’s.
Robberies – long considered the bellwether crime category – have crept up 3 percent, from 14,865 in the same period last year compared to 15,323 so far this year. Much of the upturn is blamed on teens stealing electronic gadgets from each other, as well as a jump in bank robberies.
Rapes have risen 5 percent citywide, from 943 during the same period last year to 990.
Police officials say that the number of “stranger” attacks, in which victims don’t know their assailants, have not increased, and that the reported rise may stem from the fact that women are continuing to feel more comfortable alerting the police after an incident.
The picture is rosier in the four other major crime categories. Citywide, felony assaults are down 6.8 percent, burglaries dropped 7.9 percent, grand larceny fell 1.7 percent and grand larceny auto declined 5.2 percent.
Nevertheless, the statistics show shootings are up 4.7 percent, from 1,066 to 1,117.