STATEN ISLAND — Crime has dropped 9.3 percent so far this year across the borough — the largest decrease citywide — despite a sharp increase rape and sexual assaults, law enforcement officials announced.
The number of murders have dropped 57.9 percent so far in 2017, more than twice the citywide decrease of 24.5 percent, District Attorney Michael McMahon and NYPD Staten Island Borough Commander Edward Delatorre said.
Burglaries, robberies, grand larcenies and grand larcenies auto also went down, but the borough saw a 6.5 percent increase in shootings, as well as a 21 percent increase in rapes and sexual assaults.
McMahon said most of the rapes stemmed from incidents of domestic violence, which have been on the rise in the borough since 2010 and made worse by the borough's opioid epidemic.
"Those are numbers that concern us," he noted.
To help combat those increases, McMahon said his office created a victim's advocacy unit, worked with the NYPD to increase home visits where they think a crime could be committed in the future, and opened a Family Justice Center last year.
"Any crime is too much crime, and anyone who is a victim of a crime shouldn't think that we don't take each and every case very seriously," he said. "But overall these trends are very good."
Law enforcement officials credited the drop in numbers to a slew of new programs, including the neighborhood-policing strategy, the HOPE Program and new technology to investigate crimes.
"Everything we do contributes a little bit to crime reduction," Delatorre said.
► READ MORE: Neighborhood Policing Changing Attitudes and Reaping Benefits, NYPD Says
Along with the crime numbers, McMahon and Delatorre announced the city will add 75 new high-tech policing cameras around the borough and increase the number of license plate readers using about $4 million kicked in by every elected official in the borough.
"I think the existence of these systems will go a long way to prevent crime," McMahon said. "We've striven everyday to give Staten Island the best that it deserved in terms of modernizing in both our equipment and methodology."
The borough had 45 of the cameras previously, but they could only face one way and some needed to have the video taken out of the boxes by hand.
The new cameras will feed their streams online to the NYPD and have the ability to move around to catch more of the scene, Delatorre said.
The commander said the technology was key in helping the NYPD quickly arrest Taylor Hawkins, who was charged with attacking five random women last month around the North Shore.
The cameras first snapped a photo of Hawkins' car, which they released to the media and lead to an anonymous tip about where he lived. Officers also used the license plate readers to confirm his plate was near the scenes shortly after the attacks and that the vehicle was later at his home.
"It all came together," Delatorre said. "We put them all together and you wind up with some really great police work."
Officials also announced that the 121st Precinct will get the ShotSpotter system, which uses audio sensors to pinpoint gunshots and then sends notifications to police even if 911 isn't called.
The city first rolled out the program in the 120th Precinct last year, but McMahon immediately called on the city to expand it to include neighborhoods that historically had high amounts of gun violence.
With the new rollout, which could start installation within six months, McMahon said 90 percent of the areas prone to gun violence will be covered.
Delatorre said the system has been successful in the 120th Precinct and lead to many confirmed reports of gunshots when police weren't even called.
While officials touted the drop in crime, they have still been struggling to help turn the tide of the opioid epidemic that has gripped the borough for more than a decade.
While crimes traditionally linked to opioid use, like robberies, have dropped, the number of fatal overdoses has not.
McMahon, whose office tracks overdose deaths called into the NYPD in real time, said the numbers are on trend to level off this year after Staten Island had two of its highest years for overdoses on record.
► READ MORE: The Rise of Fentanyl, the Drug Driving Up Deadly Overdoses Across the City
"Some experts think that it's maybe a glimmer of hope because we are leveling off somewhat," he said.
Both Delatorre and McMahon praised the HOPE program — which drops the charges of low-level drug offenders who seek treatment — with helping slowly turn the tide in the borough.
So far, 221 people received treatment and had their charges dropped under the program, which has started to expand to other boroughs, with the Manhattan DA office implementing a similar one last month and the Brooklyn in line to launch one soon.
"All around we're seeing a lot of collaboration that's bringing us to this point in keeping our hope up that we're going to get to the sun in this area," Delatorre said. "We're not anywhere near there yet."
However, opioid use has lead to an increase in domestic violence cases, which the authorities working to address.
"We're trying to muster together different resources to have sort of a combined response to those cases," McMahon said.
