According to a report from the New York Police Department, violent crime has been on the rise in a number of Manhattan neighborhoods near campus, including Chelsea, Gramercy and SoHo.

This contrasts with an overall drop in violent crime citywide. During the same time period, both shootings and murders dropped 24 percent and 30 percent, respectively. However, in neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, the rate of violent crime increased 28.7 percent.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report defines violent crime as murder and non-negligent homicide, forcible rape, robbery or aggravated assault.

In the West Village, the NYPD’s 6th Precinct recently reported 44 felony assaults this year, a substantial increase from the 16 total reported last year.

They have also found a 36.6 percent increase in grand larceny charges in that area.

However, the same precinct also noted a decline in nonviolent crime — robberies dropped from 43 percent to 26 percent, and the number of burglaries remained almost the same.

Nearby neighborhoods have noticed similar upward trends in violent crime. Gramercy, TriBeCa, SoHo and the Financial District have all seen increases in grand larceny, assault and rape.

Despite the proximity of the NYU campus to these neighborhoods, Patrick Wing, the NYU Public Safety Department’s director of uniform services and investigation, said that areas near campus buildings have been spared.

“We work very closely with the NYPD,” he said. “They help us identify those trends and patterns that affect the NYU community, but we haven’t seen much of these latest trends in our area.”

Wing noted that much of this crime increase has been happening nearby and around popular clubs. He also said some numbers in grand larceny are inflated by reports of stolen unattended property.

In WSN’s February article analyzing NYU’s most recent campus security report, burglary was the most frequent crime, with 254 on and off-campus incidents from 2009 to 2011.

Wing also noted that the monetary dividing line between robbery and the more serious crime of grand larceny is easily surpassed.

“If a bag contains a credit card or a phone and a few hundred dollars, the value very quickly approaches $1,000,” he said.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, April 23 print edition. Jacqueline Hsia is a staff writer. Email her at [email protected].