Looks like it was a big week for auto theft (G.L.A.) with a jump to seven. Still, we’ve seen a 24+ percent reduction in crime year-to-date, but that divide appears to be narrowing. It was 36 percent nearly a month ago.
CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. As a new feature on Sheepshead Bites, we’ll be summarizing the week’s statistics for the 61st Precinct as the reports become available (usually on Monday, one week after the closing date). The 61st Precinct is the police command responsible for Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach, and Gerritsen Beach.
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Capt. Mastrokostas and Council President Etienne present "Cop of the Month" awards to 4 officers
A larger audience than usual turned out to last night’s 61st Community Council meeting. Many, it seems, turned out to challenge Captain Georgios Mastrokostas from the 61st Precinct about problems on their block or with area businesses.
The most contentious part of the meeting occurred when a resident of East 19th Street and Avenue W complained to the captain about the dismissive attitude of police responding to consistent problems on her block. We’ve written before about this block being a haven for graffiti, and the resident stressed that despite numerous complaints police offers appear to have done little. She also said drugs were increasingly a problem, and that she had called police to have them pick up a bag of crack-cocaine she found in the street. She said dealers in cars often come to the poorly lit street to conduct transactions before driving off.
“The block is a hangout spot, an orgy spot, a get high spot,” she said.
Read the captain’s response and more meeting coverage
After a sharp spike in crime from the week before, the week of February 22 through 28 appears to have gone back down. Both burglary and grand larceny remained relatively high, and continued to see jumps from the year before. But after seven the week earlier, robberies dropped back down to one.
The overall crime reduction for the year (year-to-date total) slid down to -28.93 percent from 31.72 percent the week before, still representing a significant drop in crime.
CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. As a new feature on Sheepshead Bites, we’ll be summarizing the week’s statistics for the 61st Precinct as the reports become available (usually on Monday, one week after the closing date). The 61st Precinct is the police command responsible for Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach, and Gerritsen Beach.
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The 61st Precinct Community Council meets at 3093 Ocean Ave., on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. The 61st Precinct would like to invite you to our monthly meetings. Come in and meet with Captain Georgios Mastrokostas and his executive staff. Also, meet your community police officer and your local elected official.
Police revealed the identity of the 22-year-old man killed in yesterday’s shootout near P.S. 194 in Gerritsen Beach: George D’Amato Jr., the son of a retired court officer.
His father, George D’Amato Sr., told the New York Post:
His devastated dad, George D’Amato Sr., said his son — who “had minor scrapes with the law, nothing serious” — worked at a Duane Reade, but yesterday told him “he wanted a day off.”
“I told him to go to work,” said the father, a former court officer.
“I am retired law-enforcement myself. I know what it’s like. I can’t blame the officer. He did what he had to do,” the dad said.
Over at GerritsenBeach.net they’ve dug up D’Amato’s police record, which appears to be a history of minor property damage and fights. All told, the residents of the community who frequent the site – some of who knew D’Amato – appear to agree the police officer did what he had to do. But always eager to find something to rabidly bicker about, commenters turned to discussing whether the kid “got what he deserved.” Your thoughts?
From the NYPD Deputy Commission of Public Information’s office:
On Monday March 8, 2010 at approximately 1510 hours, in the rear of 3117 Avenue W (P.S. 194), in the confines of the 61 Precinct, police received a 911 call of a man with a gun. Upon arrival, a uniformed police officer encountered a M/W/22 who pointed what appeared to be a silver handgun at the officer. The officer discharged three (3) rounds, striking the suspect. EMS transported the suspect to Coney Island Hospital where he is pronounced dead at 1611 hours. The Investigation is ongoing.
The statement came via GerritsenBeach.net, which also says the person with the toy gun was a Gerritsen Beach kid that lived on Ebony Court. We can’t confirm that.
Related Stories:
BREAKING: Police Shooting Near P.S. 194
(Courtesy of nolastname)
UPDATE #2: As readers of our Twitter account may know, when we hit the scene we heard a few new things circling amongst reporters. Police fired three shots at around 3:10 p.m. at a 22-year-old white male wielding what appeared to be a gun. The object turned out to be a toy gun. The 22-year-old was pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital. (6:40 p.m.)
Original story
There was a police shooting around 4 p.m. today near P.S. 194, on Avenue W and Knapp Street.
From News 12:
NYPD officials say one person has been shot by officers near P.S. 194. The person was taken to Coney Island Hospital, authorities say. Officials at P.S. 194 say no students were harmed in the incident.
UPDATE: Knapp Street between Avenue W and Avenue V has been closed off by police, and news vans are on the scene. (4:33 p.m.)
Crime reduction overall in the 61st Precinct almost ground to a halt this week. With a whopping 31 crimes, we’re only down 6.06 percent from the same time period in 2009, while last week (not shown) our numbers were down 36.84 percent.
Most notably, there was a sharp increase in robberies, up 250 percent from the same week last year, and more than twice the amount from last week (3). We also more than doubled the amount of grand larcenies from last week, up to 11 from 5, and a 22.2 percent jump from this time period in 2009.
The area only had 12 crimes included in last week’s report. All told, this week’s spike has slowed down the “Year to Date” reduction of crime by less than 5 percent, from a 36.08 percent reduction from 2009’s numbers to 31.72 percent – meaning we’re still on track for an overall reduction in crime from last year.
CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. As a new feature on Sheepshead Bites, we’ll be summarizing the week’s statistics for the 61st Precinct as the reports become available (usually on Monday, one week after the closing date). The 61st Precinct is the police command responsible for Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach, and Gerritsen Beach.
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Overall, crime for the week before Valentine’s Day dropped more than 36 percent compared to the same time frame in 2009. Most significantly, the number of break-ins constituting burglary dropped 80 percent, with only one this week as compared to five in 2009. The only crime to increase this week over last year’s numbers was Grand Larceny Auto (G.L.A.), which doubled from one to two. Still, we’re down in total car thefts for the year (21) from 2009 (28).
G.L.A. shows the slowest reduction of incidents year over year, so make sure to keep your car safe. Park on well-lighted streets and do not leave valuables in your vehicle.
CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. As a new feature on Sheepshead Bites, we’ll be summarizing the week’s statistics for the 61st Precinct as the reports become available (usually on Monday, one week after the closing date). The 61st Precinct is the police command responsible for Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Kings Highway, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Beach, and Gerritsen Beach.
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We all keep hearing about the plummeting crime statistics across the city, and in our area the 61st Precinct was named the lowest crime area in all of New York City (aside from the command responsible for Central Park). But Councilman Lew Fidler is asking aloud what many residents have been mumbling among themselves for years: is the NYPD manipulating the statistics?
“People can misinterpret or misuse statistics all the time,” City Councilmember Lew Fidler told Courier-Life. “It just strikes me that the crime statistics we hear are too good to be true.”
Fidler said the “inordinate pressure” coming from the city’s top brass to make the crime stats “look good” may be causing officers to downgrade crimes or dissuade residents from filing reports altogether. He blamed the over-emphasis on statistics in determining precinct’s needs.
Have you ever thought the police manipulated a report of a crime you were a victim of? Keep reading.
