( Reported rapes have increased, but those in parks are rare.) The department recorded slightly more than 470 misdemeanor public lewdness arrests last year, down from nearly 700 in 2010. The police still target the most active locations and make arrests, yet those related to sex in public have also been on the downswing. The answer may be a combination of both: City parks are more crowded, with visitors traipsing through even some out-of-the-way spaces and police officers are also increasingly looking to solve neighborhood problems without resorting to handcuffs or tickets.
The decline has been so precipitous that it raises obvious questions: Are the police telling frisky parkgoers simply to move along, or have New Yorkers lost some of their lust? Is it the Police Department that has changed, or is it us?