Eight additional police officers will be sent to the 43rd Precinct following a sharp increase in rape totals in the Bronx, NYPD officials announced Monday.
The precinct is one of four across the city selected for the officer surge, which aims to combat citywide increases in homicides and rapes. The other precincts are in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Each precinct was selected based on the department’s analysis of crime statistics, officials said.
“With crime at a record low in New York City, there is still more work to do to ensure that every New Yorker feels safe in their neighborhood,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who announced the surge alongside NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill and Chief of Department Terence Monahan. “I have full confidence that the NYPD will stop this recent surge in its tracks.”
The 43rd Precinct serves the southeast section of the Bronx. There are four bustling commercial strips in the precinct: Westchester Avenue, Castle Hill Avenue, White Plains Road, and Parkchester. The eight officers will be stationed at highly visible locations across the area, officials said.
The most recently released data for the 43rd Precinct, current as of Feb. 24, shows rapes, robberies, felony assaults, and misdemeanor assaults up during the first two months of 2019. Two murders have been recorded, the same total recorded over the same period last year. Rapes are up sharply, from 4 to 11.
“Conditions are ever-changing and each neighborhood has different dynamics that has to be addressed,” O’Neill said
There were 70 documented reports of rape in the Bronx as of Feb. 24, representing a 71 percent increase from the 41 rapes reported last year, NYPD data shows.
The Bronx numbers reflect a citywide trend of more reports of sexual assault. The number of rapes recorded by police in all five boroughs as of Feb. 28 was 285, a 19 percent increase from last year, officials said Monday.
Overall, major crimes are down nearly nine percent across the city, and about three percent in the Bronx.