NEW YORK—A City Council oversight hearing examining crime in New York City parks, including questioning the NYPD and the Parks Department, took place on Monday.
The conclusion remains unclear.
The hearing was based on increased crime in parks garnered from statistics from the Committee on Public Safety that cites 265 major felonies in 2009 and 328 in 2010.
However, these statistics only represent the 30 largest city parks, along with Central Park. No expansion to the reporting that could provide a more accurate picture of crime in parks has happened since 2008.
The first three quarters of 2011 show a slight crime decrease in these parks with 259 major felonies. Fourth-quarter statistics for 2011 will be available the week of Feb. 6.
New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) Executive Director Holly Leicht feels discussing these numbers is pointless.
“It’s almost impossible to draw conclusions from these small sampling sizes,” she said over the phone. Earlier, during her testimony at the oversight hearing, Leicht pointed out that not only is the sampling size not following Local Law 114 of 2005, the statistics are not publicly available. NY4P obtains the Committee on Public Safety reports and posts them online.
Local Law 114, enacted in 2006, mandates the NYPD issue a quarterly report of the “Seven Major Felony Crime Complaints” in parks after the NYPD revealed they track crimes in parks to the nearest street address. Within three years, all parks one acre or greater in size would be included in the report, subject to resource availability and introduction of necessary technology.
Such technology has not been introduced, said Susan Petito of NYPD’s Intergovernmental Affairs. She could not give a timetable for when it could be, frustrating some councilors.
“When will you get this information?” asked Chair of Committee on Public Safety Peter Vallone Jr. “When do we get in the computer age?”
Committee on Parks and Recreation Chair Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito suggested the NYPD think “outside the box” in adjusting the current method of registering crime locations.
Crunching available numbers
One number cited by the council as indication of crime increase, was Central Park criminal incidents jumping from 65 in 2009 to 98 in 2010. This number decreased to 70 incidents in the first three quarters of 2011. The fourth-quarter average over the past three years is 15. In addition, incidents in 2008 in Central Park numbered 92, showing the 65 incidents in 2009 to be an uncharacteristically low number.
Crotona Park, where major felony crimes jumped from 7 in 2009 to 36 in 2010, also experienced a decrease in crime in the first three quarters of 2011, with 17 incidents reported.
Flushing Meadows Park had decreased major criminal felonies through the first three quarters of 2011 with 38 incidents, the lowest over the first three quarters in provided statistics covering 2008–2011.
Park technology
The NYPD recently had 30 security cameras installed in and around Central Park. They installed 13 others in Washington Square Park after community complaints about drug dealing.
Giovanny Pacheco, a pedicab driver in the Central Park area said, “Cameras are the most peaceful way to avoid crimes. Once you know there are cameras you stop [committing crimes].”
A 2011 report, “City Park Facts,” by the Trust for Public Land lists nine New York City parks in their top 100 most visited parks, with Central Park alone getting 35 million visits annually.
With reporting by Benjamin Chasteen
