While Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton painted another glowing picture of the decrease in crime citywide, Brooklyn’s murder rate skyrocketed nearly 17 percent in 2015, with Brooklyn South’s homicide rate up nearly 43 percent.
According to the latest police statistics as of Dec. 2o, Brooklyn has reported 139 murders so far this year as compared 119 murders at the end of 2014.
The sharp increase in reported murders – a great majority being from shootings – comes as reported shootings borough wide were down 6.6% with 467 incidents thus far in 2015 as compared to 500 at the end of 2014. Overall felony crime in Brooklyn fell about 6 percent, according to police statistics.
These contrasting statistics comes as former NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has publicly accused the de Blasio Administration of fudging some of the numbers in both shootings and murders – an allegation that Bratton flatly dismissed.
Among the biggest increases in murder was the 70th Police Precinct covering Flatbush and Ditmas Park, which saw 15 people murdered this year as compared to three in 2014. Meanwhile reported shooting incidents were even with 22 reported incidents in both 2015 and 2014. Reported robberies were up 8.6% while felony assaults fell nearly 20%. Overall felony crime in the precinct’s jurisdiction is down nearly five percent.
Other precincts where murders increased include the 67th Precinct covering East Flatbush which reported 17 reported homicides for the year as compared to 12 in 2014; the 90th Precinct covering Williamsburg which reported six murders this year as compared to two in 2014; the 88th Precinct covering Fort Greene/Clinton Hill which reported eight murders this year as compared to two in 2014; and the 77th Precinct covering northern Crown Heights, which reported 12 murders in 2015 as compared to eight last year.
Conversely, the 73rd Precinct covering Ocean Hill and Brownsville saw reported murders decline nearly 28 percent with 13 reported this year as compared to 18 in 2014; the 79th Precinct covering Bedford-Stuyvesant saw a decline with six reported in 2015 as compared to 11 in 2014; and the 75th Precinct covering East New York had 18 reported murders this year as compared to 20 in 2014.
