In the wake of an alarming spike in violent crime in Central Park this year, the NYPD announced this week that it is stepping up its presence there, especially at night. This will include an increase in patrols on foot, bicycle, vehicles and horseback throughout the park’s 843 acres.
The move–which follows the installation of additional surveillance cameras in and around the park–includes adding 40 officers to the southern end of the park, where much of the crime is happening. It will also include the deployment of drones which will be able to take photos and video that can be immediately sent to police.
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Some of the increase in crime, particularly muggings, is being attributed to the influx of migrants the city has seen this year, according to NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, who discussed the increased protection at a news conference on Wednesday. Chell said approximately ten recent muggings were allegedly perpetrated by migrants committing crimes in groups, confronting and surrounding victims.
“Most of these occurred inside or near the park,” Chell said.
“We’re seeing groups of youths committing robberies — for lack of a better term wolfpack robberies — where they just go up and surround people, take all of their property. Sometimes they display a weapon, sometimes not…We do have a current pattern there where we know it’s some of the same youth doing these robberies. Many of them seem to be from some of the migrant shelters, foreign countries,” Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard told Pix 11 News. “It’s something we just had to address. We cannot have one of the most iconic locations in our country become a breeding ground for people who want to do robberies.”
Sheppard also made it clear that the crime surge is not due only to migrants.
“If you look at Central Park this year, I think we have a pattern that we call a migrant robbery pattern, just in Central Park. Out of those robberies, we’re talking about 30 robberies, slightly over that, maybe about a third of them come back to that pattern,” Sheppard told Pix 11. “But in the totality of the overall crime number in the city, it doesn’t represent the bulk of crime.”
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High tech drones flying overhead will put eyes in the sky for the police and help increase surveillance over the park’s vast fields, woods and paths.
“It’s going to allow us to cover a big area very quickly and also allow us to get images and video to places where we don’t have cameras,” Sheppard explained in Spectrum NY1’s story.
In many cases, drones will be launched after an emergency call is made to have them on the scene and able to send images to police even before officers arrive.
In addition to the rash of robberies in the park, there have been numerous violent attacks reported, including the sexual assault of a young woman sunbathing in June in the Great Hill area.
Little late the NYPD and Mayor Adams.
Will the cops on “patrol” look up from C. Crushing, will they walk a beat within the park or just outside, or will they just stand around?
But only in Central Park, otherwise we’re fine!