QUEENS — The NYPD assigned permanent patrols to monitor the area near Parsons Boulevard and Archer Avenue in downtown Jamaica, around the Jamaica Center subway station, to address numerous robberies as well as phone and purse snatchings in the area, police officials said.
Inspector John Cappelmann, commanding officer of the 103rd Precinct, said he decided to have “a fixed post” around the intersection several weeks ago to deter criminals.
Currently, at least two patrol officers monitor the area at all times.
“The majority of our robberies and grand larcenies happen in downtown Jamaica, it’s a simple fact — this is a commercial district, there is a lot of pedestrians, there is a lot of travelers coming through, and you have the school dismissals with thousands of students coming through,” said Cappelmann at a community council meeting Tuesday night.
He also said that since the patrols began monitoring the intersection on a regular basis, the number of incidents around the station went down.
Statistics related to crime in that specific area were not immediately available but Cappelmann said the number of incidents “decreased a lot.”
Patrol officers also work on a number of quality of life issues in the area, like delivery vans and marijuana use, with “neighborhood coordination officers,” or NCOs, assigned to work in downtown Jamaica as part of NYPD’s new community policing program, Cappelmann said.
Overall crime in the 103rd Precinct, which also covers Hollis and Lakewood, declined about 14 percent this year, compared to the same period last year, the precinct's commanding officer said Tuesday.
Three major categories of violent crime were down significantly, police officials said.
Robberies fell by nearly 30 percent, with 62 reported this year, down from 88 in 2016, according to statistics provided by the NYPD for the period spanning March 27 to April 2, 2017.
Burglaries also went down by almost 30 percent to 34 this year, down from 48 in 2016.
And there were 108 grand larcenies this year, down from 121 the year before, a decrease by more than 10 percent.
The number of shootings also went down — there was one this year so far, compared to five during the same period last year, police said.
Several crime categories, however, showed an increase, including murder — there was one homicide in the precinct this year, compared to zero during the same period last year.
Seven rapes were reported in the area covered by the precinct this year, up nearly 17 percent from six incidents last year. Felony assaults rose 3.4 percent, from 89 last year to 92 in 2017, and auto thefts increased by nearly 6 percent, from 17 last year to 18 during the same period this year.
Cappelmann attributed the precinct’s recent drop in overall crime to “specific deployment" and arresting several people “who were continually committing crime after crime after crime.”
