Major Crime, Once Up in Windsor Terrace's Police Precinct, Could Finish Year Down

WINDSOR TERRACE and SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Through Dec. 18, reports of major crimes were collectively down about 4 percent in New York City compared to the same period in 2015, a trend the NYPD has emphasized throughout the year. For a significant portion of 2016, however, the department's 72nd Precinct, which patrols Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, bucked that trend, with reports of major crimes collectively up 14 percent through the first seven months of the year.

But things have changed in recent months. By the beginning of October, reports of major crimes were collectively down to about 4 percent above last year's levels. And now, the 72nd is poised to end the year with crime down compared to 2015. Through Dec. 18, reports of major crimes were collectively down 1.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

The precinct has seen one more murder this year (four compared to three in 2015) and two more rapes (22 compared to 20), as well as upticks in felony assaults and grand larcenies. But those were offset by a 34.3 percent decrease in burglaries (136 incidents reported through Dec. 18 compared to 207 reported in 2015) and a 7.5 percent drop in robberies (185 incidents compared to 200 last year).

A review of statistics compiled by the city's CompStat database shows that major crimes peaked in August, before decreasing in September, rebounding in October, and falling again in November and December:

Data and visualization via CompStat

The data also shows that the most grievous major crimes were concentrated in Sunset Park and South Slope, as opposed to Windsor Terrace. For example, here via CompStat are the locations of three major crime categories through Dec. 25:

Murder

Rape

Robbery

Other crime categories, however, were more evenly distributed, such as grand larceny:

In an October interview with Patch, the precinct's commander, Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez, said the overall uptick in reported crime earlier in the year might have been attributable to people feeling more comfortable reporting crime to the police. He also praised the department's Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCO) — cops assigned to specific parts of the precinct — saying they've improved police-community relations resulting in more tips and better policing on the ground.

Here is a review of the precinct's four sectors, as well as the NCOs assigned to each and their direct contact information.

Sector A

• Danny McGrath: 917-853-2601, daniel.mcgrath@nypd.org
• Francis Ghanney, 929-343-7645, francis.ghanney@nypd.org

Sector B

• Brian Cassidy, brian.cassidy@nypd.org, 929-383-8164
• Luz Fulcher, 917-847-7763, luz.fulcher@nypd.org

Sector C

• Ramon Cabral, 917-854-4643, ramon.cabral@nypd.org
• Philip Buonora, 929-371-7705, philip.buonora@nypd.org

Sector D

• Richard Fuentes, richard.fuentes@nypd.org, 929-522-7641
• Sue Liu, sue.liu@nypd.org, 929-343-7660

[Editor's note: this post has been updated with new information.]

Top image courtesy of Giacomo Barbaro on Flickr.