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Cops Downplay Rise in Chelsea Crime

By Mathew Katz | February 28, 2013 3:54pm
 Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos discusses crime statistics in the 10th Precinct on Feb. 27, 2013.
Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos discusses crime statistics in the 10th Precinct on Feb. 27, 2013.
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DNAinfo/Mathew Katz

CHELSEA — Cops downplayed a rise in crime in Chelsea during a community meeting Wednesday night.

The 10th Precinct, which covers Chelsea and a small part of western Hell's Kitchen, saw only four felony assaults in the first two months of last year, but dealt with 16 so far this year, according to Deputy Inspector Elisa Cokkinos, the commanding officer.

"It looks like a huge increase in felony assault," she said.

"We had some DV, domestic violence things. It's not as though we have kids running around, or anybody running around assaulting people in the street. Most of it is internal, inside the home."

She added that arrests had been made in 12 of those cases.

Last year, the precinct averaged 67 major crimes per 28 days at the start of the year, but those numbers are on track to rise in 2013, Cokkinos said.

"We are showing some activity in the robbery area," she said, with 16 robberies since the starts of the year. Seven of those cases were closed, with 12 people arrested.

The precinct also saw a considerable rise in drunk driving arrests — with 23 compared to eight at this point last year.

Overall, the command is up 12 percent in arrests for the year and 23 percent for the two-year period.

Cokkinos said the biggest challenge in bringing down crime was how unusually low the numbers were last year, skewing the statistics a bit.

"We had a very very low number for the first three months of last year — we're kind of fighting our own success last year, this year," she said.

"We're doing very, very good police work in the 10th Precinct."