Ed. Note: See crime in 2007 broken down by neighborhood (or sector, in police speak) by clicking here. These maps* mark the first time the Norwood News has been able to provide this kind of a crime breakdown. Thanks to the leaders at the 52nd Precinct for helping us provide our readership with such valuable information.

Despite the fact overall crime in New York City dropped to record lows in 2007, crime numbers in the northwest Bronx’s 52nd Precinct stayed remarkably unchanged from the year before.

“Crime was flat for 2007,” 52nd Precinct Deputy Inspector James Alles told an audience at a local community board meeting last week.

The commander was not exaggerating. Overall, there were exactly 2,434 crimes in the Five-Two for both 2006 and 2007. There were exactly 13 murders in each of the past two years. In 2006, there were 458 assaults. In 2007, there were 460.

The most dramatic shifts came in auto thefts (down 12 percent) and grand larceny (up 6 percent). Every other crime, such as rapes, burglaries and robberies remained close to the same.

Still, Alles praised his operations director, Lieutenant Steve Phalen, for orchestrating “some significant busts” that caused crime statistics to drop considerably over the last three months of the year. These arrests, Alles said, allowed the precinct to recover after being hit hard by violent crime in September and early October.

Crime Maps 2007: Click here to find out how crime in the 52nd Precinct breaks down by neighborhood.

Minus all the gory details, these crime-specific maps tell most of the crime story in the 52nd Precinct for 2007. Each map is broken down by crime and into sectors, with the amount of crimes reported next to each each sector letter.

There are a few caveats:

Because there is little crime, police say, aside from the occasional grand larceny in sectors “P” and “Q,” which make up the Botanical Garden and Zoo, we’ve omitted them on the maps. There were 18 grand larcenies, one robbery, one car theft and one assault in “P” and “Q” combined last year.

We also didn’t give auto theft its own map. Sectors “C” experienced the most car thefts (73), while sectors “A” (34) and “M” (33) had the second and third most. Sectors “J” (27), “B” (26), “N” (23) and “G” (20) were the next most victimized. Sector “E,” which is mostly the Kingsbridge Armory, the Walton High School campus and Lehman College, had only seven auto thefts all year.

* Maps by Ibrahim Gonzalez and Janet Norquist. Source: New York City Police Department.