Crime at Barclays Center? Not really, say police

Early in the planning process, one of the big fears about Barclays Center, along with traffic and community disruption, was an increase in crime around the arena. Well, so far, the biggest problem, say police, was a rowdy crowd at a Justin Bieber concert. No, really.

"Crime is very minimal," said Deputy Inspector Michael, Ameri, commanding officer of the 78th Precinct at a neighborhood policing meeting last Tuesday night. "Overall we've had about five crimes and most of them were just property crimes...I'm very, very happy and I think the community's happy, because I'm not hearing many complaints."

That's five crimes through 86 ticketed events in 126 days. That's it. "There's really no robberies…no one getting assaulted," Ameri said. "Even the patrons, they’re not assaulting each other."

The biggest complaint by residents, reports DNAInfo, is idling limousines awaiting pickups.

• Barclays Center Crime is 'Minimal,' Police Say - Leslie Albrecht - DNAInfo