Mixed bag in new 3rd.

Richard Tedesco

Grand larcenies rose and burglaries fell during the first six months of the year compared to the first six months of 2011 in the area covered by the reconstituted Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct.

The incidence of grand larcenies rose year-to-year by nearly 30 percent, from 474 to 608, through July 9. The incidence of residential burglaries dropped by more than 22 percent over that same period, to 108 from 139, while other burglaries, including burglaries of commercial businesses, dropped by nearly 32 percent from 102 to 70 

The 3rd Precinct’s crime statistics now reflect statistics from the 6th Precinct in Great Neck, as that precinct has been merged into the 3rd Precinct as part of the county’s current police department consolidation plan.  The precinct’s boundaries extend west to the Queens border, east to include Westbury and Roosevelt, south through Mineola and north through the Willistons.

Sean McCarthy, 3rd Precinct inspector, said the grand larceny rate stems, in part, from thefts from parked cars. He said the rate could be reduced if people simply locked their cars – or removed visible valuables from their vehicles.

“If people lock their cars and don’t put keys and wallets and iPads and everything else, they wouldn’t be victimized by this kind of crime,” McCarthy said.

Often, he said, a team of two thieves will walk down both sides of a residential street, checking car doors to locate an easy score and sometimes breaking a window if the owner has left something tempting enough inside a vehicle.

“You have a bunch of them and then you don’t see any for weeks,” McCarthy said.

Grand larcenies increased at a slightly higher rate in the 3rd Precinct as in the entire county.

The other major crime category showing a significant rate of increase in the 3rd Precinct is robberies, which rose 13 percent year-to-year, to 70 from 62.

A number of street robberies occur in Westbury and other parts of the precinct, with Hispanic males frequently the victims, McCarthy said. Hispanic men tend to carry cash on them, and after they’ve been drinking, he said they can make easy targets for robbers.

The 3rd Precinct has been attempting to warn Hispanics of the danger in an informational outreach through local churches, which translate police flyers to get the word out. McCarthy said some Hispanics are reluctant to report crimes committed against them because they’re concerned about the police seeking information about their residency status.

“There will be no inquiries about their immigration status. They can come to us and rely on us to help them,” McCarthy said, adding that the precinct is concerned that it would have “a huge blind spot” if Hispanics don’t report crimes.

McCarthy attributed the year-to-year drop in burglaries to a sustained effort of field work informed by strong intelligence over the past few years.

“That’s been three years of looking at patterns,” he said.

Crime analysts at the 3rd Precinct identify areas that are most frequently hit and also regularly consult with analysts at the Nassau County Police central intelligence analysts in Massapequa. The trends they uncover translate into plain clothes police officers on the street in residential and commercial areas that seem to be frequent targets.

“They’re not cops. They’re crime analysts, and they’re very effective,” McCarthy said.

The 3rd Precinct also maintains a strong presence and a “zero tolerance” vehicle enforcement policy at highway exits as an added measure of deterrence.

The 3rd Precinct’s very visible presence at the Roosevelt Field shopping mall in marked police cars and on horseback has helped reduce the incidence of crime there.

“It does have a deterrent effect,” McCarthy said, adding, “Horses give you great visibility at a mall.”

Police officers at the mall also use the relatively silent, non-mechanized approach of patrolling the mall on bicycles.

On the home front, McCarthy said preventive measures, such as not leaving mail in one’s mailbox, leaving lights on in the evening and using outdoor lighting and burglar alarms, can work well. He said people should communicating that they’re on vacation – indirectly through auto-reply e-mails or by posting messages on a Facebook page.

“There’s lots of little things you can do,” he said.

Most residential burglaries occur during the day, McCarthy said, suggesting that robbers read the obvious signs when nobody’s home.

If you are victimized by a burglary – or anything else – McCarthy said it’s always best to call 911, where calls are tracked and easier for police to follow up on.

In other major crime categories, there was one homicide committed in the 3rd Precinct’s coverage area this year. No homicides were recorded during the first six months of the previous year.

There were five rapes reported this year, compared to four rapes for the same period last year.

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