Rapes Continue Spike Even Amid Historic Drop In NYC Crime: NYPD

NEW YORK, NY — Reported rapes in New York City spiked in the first three months of this year even amid a historic decline in crime overall, NYPD officials said Wednesday. The first quarter of 2018 saw 21,413 major crimes, 4.1 percent fewer than the same period last year and a record low for first three months of any year since the NYPD started using its CompStat crime-tracking system, the Police Deparment said.

The NYPD has recorded fewer murders, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and car thefts so far this year than in 2017.

Murders saw the sharpest drop — there were nine fewer through the end of March than in the same period last year, a 13.6-percent decrease. The city closed 2017 with fewer than 300 murders for the first time since the 1950s.

"We are on pace for another historic year," Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Wednesday.

But there have been 382 rapes so far this year, an increase of nearly 25 percent, or 76, over 2017, NYPD officials said. March alone saw 35 more reported rapes than in the same month last year, according to NYPD figures.

About 35 percent of 2018's reported rapes allegedly occurred before this year, an unusually high number, NYPD Crime Control Strategies Chief Dermot Shea said. He noted that the uptick has coincided with a nationwide movement that's burgeoned since the fall — when the NYPD first saw rape reports start to rise — to pull back the curtain on sexual violence.

"The reporting we view as a positive, but it remains a challenge because we know that even with that icnreased reporting there's undoubtedly across the country a number of rapes, and far too high, that go unreported still," Shea said Wednesday.

The NYPD unveiled its latest crime figures as it faces criticism from advocates over a lack of staffing for the units in its Special Victims Division that investigate adult sex crimes and practices that prioritize so-called stranger rapes over cases in which the alleged perpetrator knows the victim.

The Police Department has added 20 investigators to those adult sex crimes squads and will soon launch a campaign to help make sure "survivors of sexual assault do have the confidence and trust in us to report to the NYPD," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

The department has also added 16 investigators to a new "special victims cold case unit," he said.

Additionally, the new chief of detectives — to be named after current Chief Robert Boyce retires in the coming weeks — will review the Special Victims Division's leadership and operations, O'Neill said.

That review will follow Tuesday's New York Daily News report revealing that Deputy Chief Michael Osgood, the SVD's commander, gave more than $2,800 to President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign after a leak video showed the then-candidate bragging about sexually assaulting women.

O'Neill did not explicitly reprimand Osgood on Wednesday, but suggested the donations ran counter to the SVD's interests.

"I think the (commanding officer) and all the investigators need to maintain the confidence of the survivors of sexual assault and the advocate community, so we need to consider that," O'Neill said.

(Lead image: Photo by David Allen/Patch)