To the Residents of Queens County:
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown – who began his record seventh-consecutive term as district attorney and marked the completion of his 25th year as Queens County’s chief law enforcement officer in 2016 – delivered his year-end message to the residents of Queens County in which he noted that Queens County was again among the city’s leaders in crime reduction in 2016.
Based on preliminary statistics released by the City Police Department, Queens County has seen an overall 3.26-percent decline in serious crime from the previous year. The downward turn was led by a nearly 19-percent drop in murders and a 15-percent drop in auto thefts, followed by an 8.5-percent drop in robberies and a nearly 8 percent drop in burglaries.
“During the twenty-five years that I have had the privilege and honor of serving as district attorney of Queens County, my office has steadfastly committed itself to ensuring a safe environment for those who live, work and visit in Queens County,” Brown said. “Through our law-enforcement initiatives and the utilization of an array of cutting-edge interventions and prevention programs, we have made tremendous progress in accomplishing that goal which, in turn, has contributed greatly to New York City’s historic decline in serious and violent crime. According to statistical data provided by the NYPD, over the last twenty-three years overall crime in Queens is down by 80.55 percent, murders – a stalwart benchmark for both prosecutors and police – have fallen 83.4 percent, robberies are down 82.4 percent, burglaries are down 85.9 percent, felony assaults are down 41.5 percent, and auto thefts are down an astounding 95.5 percent.”
Brown added, “We continue to be, I believe, among the best and busiest prosecutor’s offices in the country. Last year our office handled more than 77,000 arrest cases – cases running the gamut from quality of life offenses to serious violent felonies. And, by any standard, we handled those cases efficiently and judiciously. Preliminary numbers for the year show that we statistically maintain the best arrest to arraignment time in the City and have the best arrest to sworn complaint time, meaning that we are able to get our police officers back on the streets faster than any other borough. In sum, we continue to have the respect of our law enforcement colleagues and the confidence of the people of Queens County.”
The district attorney also noted that “in pursuing the office’s core mission to increase public safety and reduce crime in 2016, we have vigorously pursued hate crime cases against those individuals who chose their victims based on religion, sexuality, the color of their skin and other factors and those who target older victims. We have aggressively gone after illegal cigarette traffickers, organized trademark counterfeiting rings and legitimate businesses and franchises that annually cheat the government out of millions of dollars of much needed State and City revenue. On a local level, we have focused our attention on quality of life issues – such as burglaries, home invasions and combating graffiti which lead to decreased property values and is expensive to remove. We continue to do our part in protecting our younger residents by going after on-line child pornographers, as well as sex traffickers and sexual predators who attempt to meet underage children on-line for sexual relations.”
District Attorney Brown concluded his message by saying, “I am optimistic that by continuing the very successful strategies that we have employed over the years we, together with our law enforcement colleagues, can make Queens County even safer in 2017.”
