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Major Crime Down 16.8 Percent in Crown Heights So Far This Year, NYPD Says

 Captain Isa Abbassi, commanding officer of the 77th Precinct, updates residents of Crown Heights at a meeting Monday night .
Captain Isa Abbassi, commanding officer of the 77th Precinct, updates residents of Crown Heights at a meeting Monday night .
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — As far as crime goes, things are off to a very good start in Crown Heights this year, according to the area’s precinct commander.

Captain Isa Abbassi of the 77th Precinct on Monday night updated the community on neighborhood crime trends at a meeting of the precinct’s Community Council, saying major crimes in the area are down nearly 17 percent so far this year.

The one category that saw a significant increase was burglary. Reports of burglaries have jumped 65 percent — to 33 incidents so far in 2017 compared to 20 incidents during the same period last year. But Abbassi said he thinks several recent burglary arrests made by officers in the neighborhood will reverse that trend over time.

“We’re doing tremendously. We’re off to a great start this year,” he told the gathering at the Bedford-Central Presbyterian Church.

The trend comes from NYPD CompStat data, which shows crime is down in five of seven “major crime” categories: murder, robbery, felony assault, grand larceny and grand larceny auto. The only category outside of burglaries that saw an increase this year were rapes, which have jumped to four incidents so far in 2017 compared to only two during the same period last year.

Since the first of the year through Feb. 12 — the latest date for which data is available — there have been 139 major crimes reported in the 77th Precinct, down 16.8 percent from the 167 reports in the same time period in 2016, the statistics show.

“We have the greatest crime reduction in Brooklyn North,” Abbassi said Monday, speaking of the command that covers the northern half of the borough.

Notable as well are the number of shootings in the precinct so far this year: zero. In 2016, there had been two shootings incident in the area at this time, injuring two victims.

Abbassi took over the job of commanding officer in October 2016 after the promotion of the precinct's previous leader, then Deputy Inspector Eddie Lott.

The 77th Precinct covers Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and the Weeksville area, from Vanderbilt Avenue to the west and Ralph Avenue to the east, bordered by Atlantic Avenue on the north and Eastern Parkway on the south.