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Crime Continues to Decline in Jamaica, Police Say

By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska | January 13, 2016 7:28pm
 Inspector John Cappelmann, Commanding Officer of the 103rd Precinct, discusses crime statistics in the area at a community council meeting on Jan. 12, 2016.
Inspector John Cappelmann, Commanding Officer of the 103rd Precinct, discusses crime statistics in the area at a community council meeting on Jan. 12, 2016.
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DNAinfo.com/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

QUEENS — Despite two fatal shootings that marred the final week of 2015 in Jamaica, the neighborhood has made "remarkable strides" in its fight against crime, police officials said.

Overall, crime in the 103rd Precinct, which also covers Hollis and Lakewood, declined 6 percent in 2015, compared to 2014, according to Inspector John Cappelmann, the precinct’s commanding officer.

Almost all major categories of violent crime were down, including homicides. There were six murders in 2015, down from nine the year before.

Robberies decreased by nearly 4 percent, with 377 reported last year, down from 392 in 2014, records shows. Burglaries dipped by almost 12 percent to 245 in 2015, down from 278 in 2014. There were 439 felony assaults last year, down 5 percent from the 462 reported in 2014, according to statistics provided by the NYPD for the period spanning Jan. 1 to Dec. 27, 2015. 

The only crime category that showed an increase was rape — there were 28 such incidents in the 103rd Precinct during that time, about 40 percent more than in 2014, when there were 20 rapes.

The number of shootings stayed nearly level — there were 18 shootings in 2015, compared to 17 in 2014, police said.

“One shooting is one too many,” Cappelmann said at a 103rd Precinct Community Council meeting Tuesday night. But he also pointed out that the number of shootings in the area dropped dramatically compared to previous years.

In 2012, there were 45 shootings in the precinct, and in 1993 there were 83, officials said.

Cappelmann said that in order to curb crime in the neighborhood, the precinct focused “on specific people who we know that are involved and who are really committing the crimes,” especially those who are in charge of crime groups.

“When you take out the leadership and you take out the person who is going to pull the trigger then that stops the rest of the group from doing anything extremely violent ... and you see things go down dramatically,” he said.

He said the precinct still struggles with illegal guns, drugs and crews, but he noted that they seem to trigger less violence than in the past.