Homicides, rapes up while overall crime drops 2.5 percent: NYPD

After a spate of reported rapes across the city, police officials confirmed Wednesday that the number of reported rapes as well as homicides increased slightly in November.

Nonetheless, NYPD expects the year to round out with a drop in overall crime.

“My anticipation is we will end the year once again with significant crime reductions,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told reporters.

Year to date, the overall crime rate is down by 2.5 percent.

At the same time, Chief of Department James O’Neill reported that police tracked 16 rapes in the last month, an increase of 15 percent from last year.

Cops captured 28-year-old Paul Niles for the rape of a woman jogging in East River Park on Nov. 25.

The next day, police were tracking down a suspect who assaulted a woman inside the Straus Houses in Kip’s Bay.

Days earlier, two police officers arrested a homeless man who attempted to rape a 62-year-old woman in lower Manhattan.

Bratton said he believed the East River Side rape might have been prevented had a woman who he attacked earlier had reported the crime.

“Several hours before that rape, the individual had attempted to molest another woman who did not report it until she read the [second] report,” the top cop said. “Had that been reported, maybe we would have been in a position to prevent the rape that did occur.”

O’Neill told reporters the department took every rape case very seriously.

“It’s difficult for us to try to figure out what’s going on because a lot of times victims are so traumatized by it,” he said.

NYPD also reported an increase in murders, which for the year are up 6.7 percent. As of Nov. 30, there have been 319 reported homicides in 2015 compared with 298 the year earlier.

“You need to take into context our homicide rate is probably better than just about any other major city in America,” Bratton said, adding he expected homicides to be rise overall by the year’s end by between 20 and 25 deaths.

“In the beginning of the year we had an increase,” Bratton said, “but for the last seven months we’ve actually been relatively flat.”

The commissioner contrasted the increases in rape and murders with drops in most every other measure of crime. For November, felony assaults are down 2.4 percent, as is burglary by 3.6 percent.