More Police Patrols Come To Busy UES Corridors Amid Theft Uptick

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — More police officers have begun patrolling a few of the Upper East Side's busiest commercial corridors amid complaints about an uptick in low-level crime, according to a local lawmaker.

Added police patrols began late last month along East 86th Street and down Lexington and Third avenues, City Council Member Julie Menin told Patch. Police officials first detailed the patrols at a public meeting last week by the Upper East Side's 19th Precinct.

Focused on "high-density commercial corridors," the extra patrols had been demanded in part by local business owners, whom Menin had "heard an earful from over the past few months."

"People just felt that there had been a lot of theft and they were concerned about it," she said.

Indeed, reports of grand larcenies and burglaries have both risen this year on the Upper East Side — by 52 percent and 15 percent, respectively, compared to last year, according to NYPD data. (Overall crime rates remain well below where they stood in the 1990s and early 2000s.)

Some new Upper East Side patrols began in July, when recent police academy graduates were assigned to precincts across the north side of Manhattan, according to Menin's office.

An added focus on the Upper East Side began in October, with a new class of officers patrolling more ground than they had over the summer. That includes lengthening the patrol area on East 86th Street — after previously covering only a couple of blocks on the busy corridor, patrols have been extended several blocks to the east and west, Menin's office said.

Meanwhile, Menin said the NYPD has also announced plans to install 31 new security cameras throughout the Upper East Side, including some that would cover the un-surveilled blocks of the East River Esplanade that have sparked safety fears in the past.

Asked for details about the new cameras, the NYPD's press office said only that "security cameras were installed over a 6 month period ending in September."