January 4, 1999

QUEENS HOMICIDES AND ALL MAJOR CRIMES DROP AGAIN IN 1998

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that preliminary year end figures show that homicides and other major crimes in Queens county have continued to drop significantly over last year and represent a dramatic reduction from just five years ago.

The District Attorney said, "Preliminary figures for 1998 indicate that we had 119 homicides here in Queens County during the past year -- a 9% decline from 1997 when there were 131 homicides and over a 67% decline from 1992, my first full year as District Attorney, when 361 homicides occurred. Moreover, the overall rate of violent crime continues to decrease steadily with a 15% drop in 1998 over 1997 and an astounding 51% decrease in the last five years."

District Attorney Brown said, "The New York City Police Department's crime control strategies and the Queens District Attorney's Office's focus on career criminals and violent predators have been tremendously successful at reducing the crime rate in Queens. Our office's aggressive efforts to proactively investigate, prosecute and obtain substantial prison terms for highly active criminals and to dismantle organized criminal enterprises has played a significant role in making Queens County a safer place to live."

"Because drug trafficking and drug related violence had driven crime rates up for so long," said District Attorney Brown "a key component in crime reduction has been a strong and sustained effort aimed at narcotics offenses. Working closely with the New York City Police Department to effectively prosecute the substantial number of the narcotics, gun and quality of life arrests generated by their initiatives, our office has drafted over 640 search warrants during 1998 and handled over 68,000 arrests -- an increase of almost 10% over last year -- a fact that has contributed to the overall decline in homicides and other violent crime and a 21% reduction in shootings in the precincts that comprise Queens South alone."

The District Attorney added, "We have also made enormous gains since the early 1990's in fighting the scourge of auto crime using sting operations, electronic surveillance and long term investigations to break up chop shops and car theft rings and obtaining felony convictions and meaningful prison terms for career car thieves responsible for significant number of thefts. As a result of these efforts, the number of vehicles reported stolen on the streets of Queens has plummeted from 50,239 in 1991 to 15,945 this year -- a remarkable reduction of over 68%.

District Attorney Brown concluded, "It is clear that enhanced investigative efforts and heightened narcotics enforcement, as well as our persistence in convicting career criminals and repeat offenders, have had a major impact on crime in Queens County. By continuing -- and expanding on -- the successful strategies that we have employed in the last few years, I am hopeful that we will be able to reduce crime even further during the years ahead."