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NEW YORK, NY May 22, 2008 —After a recent shooting in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, residents and elected officials want the Police Department to increase police presence there. They claim the streets have felt less safe over the past several months. This conflicts with the city's statistics, which indicate that the city's crime remains at historic lows.

WNYC's Kathleen Horan has more.

A handful of residents gathered on the corner of Putnam and Grand avenues last night, across the street from where a woman was shot a week ago by a stray bullet. They say that area has been a problem for years with illegal drug activity.

The landlord of the four buildings on that block, confirmed it. He looked over at his buildings and shook his head:

Councilwoman Letitia James says the area - from Fulton to Lafayette and Classon to Vanderbilt - has had the most problems in the 88th District. But her requests for more police in the area have fallen on deaf ears because the city's actual crime stats don't reflect what the community is experiencing. Partly, because she says incidents like random gunfire and graffiti aren't factored into the data.

Michael Lee has lived in the neighborhood for two years but he says lately, things have changed.

LEE: You're less likely to walk around certain blocks. My wife works late - it seems kind of odd that you purposely avoid your own block.

The NYPD did not respond to request for comment.

For WNYC, I'm Kathleen Horan.

REPORTER: Clinton Hill residents plan to launch a crime reporting Web site this summer, so people can more easily analyze local trends and compare them with the city's official statistics.