Gotham’s tally of break-ins quadrupled last week as looters took advantage of George Floyd protests to ransack portions of Manhattan and Brooklyn — but crime still remains down for the year, new data shows.
The NYPD recorded 909 burglaries in the first full week of June, compared to just 181 reports over the same time last year, crime stats released Monday show.
June 1 saw the highest number of 911 calls reporting break-ins across the city — with emergency call centers receiving more than 2,300 reports, according to police officials.
That number continued to decrease as the week went on, dropping dramatically on Tuesday, dipping to 306, after an earlier curfew was put in effect.
NYPD’s Counter Intelligence Deputy Commissioner John Miller said the department has an “intelligence gap” in how the looters planned the coordinated burglaries.
“Looting was not a feature we anticipated, or associated with, this type of movement,” Miller said.
“We believe it was an optimistic action by regular criminal groups,” he added.
“Part of their calculus most of police resources would be tied up with marches. We had to split off a good deal of those resources to chase down those looters until the morning.”
Murders and shootings continued rise last week — but, overall, major crime this year remains down 1.5 percent.
Arrests, meanwhile are down more than 40 percent overall — despite a 700-percent increase in burglary arrests, data shows.