Crime spikes in city parks during first half of 2016, NYPD data show

An increase of robberies, assaults and other wrongdoing has caused a 39 percent surge in crimes committed in city parks during the first half of the year, records show.

NYPD CompStat data show a 36 percent increase in robberies during that period and a 24 percent increase in assaults.

“I am not surprised,” Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, told PIX11 News. “I have been calling for an increase in police presence.”

A total of 460 crimes were reported during the first six months of 2016, compared to 330 during the same period in 2015, according to the data.

There were fewer rapes reported (six) in city parks during the first half of the year than during the same period in 2015 (eight).

More crimes were committed in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens during the first half of 2016 than in any other park in the city. Twenty-five grand larcenies, three robberies, a felony assault and a robbery were reported at the park during that period.

”What’s particularly embarrassing is the city’s response calling park crime ‘rare,’ the increase a ‘slight uptick’ and boasting that parks are the safest places in the universe” Croft told the New York Post. “That’s simply delusional.”