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Bratton Vows Rockaway Crime Spike Will Be 'Resolved Very, Very Quickly'

By Katie Honan | July 6, 2015 4:02pm
 A crime increase on the peninsula, described last week by a top NYPD official as an area of concern, will be
A crime increase on the peninsula, described last week by a top NYPD official as an area of concern, will be "resolved very, very quickly," said Commissioner Bill Bratton.
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FAR ROCKAWAY — Commissioner Bill Bratton vowed that the peninsula's crime increase, which was described last week by a top NYPD official as an area of concern, would be "resolved very, very quickly" — despite a steady increase over five years. 

The Rockaway peninsula, along with Coney Island and Harlem, has bucked the trend of decreasing overall crime numbers in the city, a top NYPD official noted last week. 

Bratton discussed the spike on "The John Gambling Show" on AM 970 THE ANSWER Monday morning, downplaying the increase and saying it's centered around the peninsula's NYCHA houses. 

"Rockaway unfortunately has a number of housing developments out there that have been problematic for years," Bratton said, adding "that [the] situation will get resolved very very quickly."

He didn't offer any specifics on how the problem would be tackled.

He continued to say "the public and oftentimes the media and the pundits don't appreciate, crime goes up and down."

Crime numbers in the 100th and 101st precincts have been rising steadily since 2009, according to NYPD statistics.

Overall crime in the 101st precinct was up 42 percent since 2010, and 16 percent in the 100th precinct for the same time period, records show.

Shootings in the precincts have gone up over a 2 year period — 80 percent in the 101st precinct and 120 percent in the 100th.

Since 2010, shootings in the 101st has actually dropped 53 percent, but it's risen a staggering 175 percent in the 100th precinct. 

At a press briefing last week, Deputy Commissioner Dermot Shea noted the increases and said the NYPD is "collectively moving resources" to address the spikes in certain neighborhoods. He did not discuss which resources would be specifically devoted to the Rockaways.

Emails to the NYPD about the comments were not immediately returned.