In the weeks since Sean Bell was fatally shot by police outside a Queens topless bar, arrests have dropped by about 40% in the area, the latest police statistics show.

Some experts said the drop reflected police officers’ reluctance to face another confrontation in a neighborhood charged with racial tension after the shooting, and some pointed to similar drops following other controversial shootings.

Police arrested 323 people in the Jamaica area of Queens during the November 19–December 17 period, Compstat reports show. In 2005, police arrested 535 people during the same period. The 39.6% drop comes alongside a 5.3% increase in complaints of crime in the neighborhood for the period. The 103rd Precinct is responsible for the neighborhood, but the drop in arrests include those made by other bureaus, including Organized Crime and Narcotics.

Meanwhile, arrests across the city have risen to 27,164 this year from 25,139 for the same period in 2005, an 8% increase.

A police spokesman, Assistant Chief Michael Collins, declined to comment on the statistics.

The drop is in line with city arrest data after other police shootings, a professor of policing at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Eli Silverman, said.

“If an officer feels that the heat is on and the spotlight is on, they are going to opt for the side of caution,” he said. “After major incidents, you generally see a tapering off” of active enforcement.

Another professor of policing at the college, Eugene O’Donnell, agreed, saying: “The last thing they want is a another shooting in South Jamaica.”

After four street crime officers fatally shot Amadou Diallo, who was unarmed, in the vestibule of his Bronx apartment building in 1999, citywide arrests dropped by 8% over nine months, according to published news reports. Arrests by street crime officers dropped to 3,115 in fiscal 1999 from 4,250 in fiscal 1998, a 26.7% decrease, the reports say.

Mayor Giuliani reportedly said at the time that the intense public scrutiny of the police after the Diallo shooting caused the murder rate to rise slightly, because officers were less confident to make arrests.

Police behavior in the aftermath of the Bell shooting so far seems to have diverged from that of the Diallo era. There have been similar marches and rallies against police brutality, but in recent weeks the police have not exhibited a reluctance to use their weapons. There have been five police-involved shootings — two of them fatal — since Bell was killed.

The most recent shooting happened on Saturday evening, when a police officer shot and killed Anatoly Dimitriev, 62, who charged at him with an axe. Officers shot and killed Timur Person, 19, who was armed, during a scuffle in the Bronx on December 13. Police officials have said both shootings appeared to be within department guidelines.

The Queens district attorney is investigating Bell’s death and is expected to convene a grand jury in the first weeks of January to hear the evidence. Bell and two friends were shot early on the morning of November 25 after they were out celebrating Bell’s bachelor party at a topless bar that was also targeted for undercover police activity that night. An undercover detective said he believed one of the men had a gun, and when he confronted them, Bell drove his car forward, ramming an unmarked van with more officers, police have said. Five officers fired 50 shots, killing Bell and injuring his friends. No weapon was found at the scene.

The City Council member who represents South Jamaica, Leroy Comrie, a Democrat, said the drop in arrests comes as a surprise because he has received numerous reports of harassment in the area since Bell’s death. The complainants have said the police were using everything at their disposal, including old parking tickets, to interrogate people about Bell, he said. Critics of the department have said the police were looking for a “fourth man” who an undercover detective at the scene said may have had a gun but fled once the shooting started.

“Arrests don’t always indicate how much police activity is going on,” Mr. Comrie said. “There’s a lot of anxiety in the neighborhood about making sure there are some solutions to this problem, and whether or not an indictment and then a conviction will happen.”