Village Crime Spike Prompts Increase In Night-time Cops

WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — A crime spike in the new year led largely by middle-of-the-night burglaries at bars and restaurants has led police to add more than a dozen extra cops to their midnight shift, according to the community board.

Cops with the 6th Precinct, which oversees the West Village and Greenwich Village, told Community Board 2 that there has been a 39 percent spike in overall crime in the neighborhoods in 2020, CB2 District Manager Bob Gormley said Thursday.

The spike, Gormley said, is largely due to an increase in burglaries, many of which are happening late at night in the precinct's bars and restaurants.

The increase has led the 6th Precinct to reassign some of its officers to the midnight shift and add 13 extra cops to those night-time patrols.

"They're adding an additional 13 officers to midnight shift until they get a handle on this uptick," Gormley said.

There had been 46 reported burglaries in the 6th Precinct in 2020 as of Friday, more than double the 18 burglaries that were reported during the same time period last year, NYPD data shows.

The most reported type of burglary were those happening in a commercial establishment at night, the data shows.

But residential burglaries during the day were not far behind. There have been 13 commercial burglaries at night and 11 at residential buildings during the day so far this year, data shows.

Gormley said the daytime burglaries are largely due to people stealing packages that are dropped off and left in hallways and vestibules.

"You might want to be aware of that," he told the crowd at the CB2 board meeting.

The Village is not the only neighborhood in Manhattan where crime has spiked in the New Year.

Officers with the Upper West Side's two precincts also recently warned residents that an increase in grand larceny and robberies was driving an overall crime spike in their neighborhood.

In the 6th Precinct, robberies were also up, by about 64 percent, and grand larceny had spiked by about 13 percent.

The largest increase for a type of crime was grand larceny auto. Nine cars were stolen in the Village so far in 2020 compared to just two cars during the same time period last year, data shows.

As of Friday overall crime was up by 45 percent.