The Nassau County Police Department Third Precinct reported this week a drop of more than 6 percent in major crimes during 2010 and a decrease of nearly 12 percent in all other crimes.
Residential burglaries in the Third Precinct declined more than 16 percent – from 277 in 2009 to 232 in 2010, according to police statistics. But other burglaries were up by just over 22 percent year to year – from 94 to 125 incidents. Robberies increased over 22 percent, from 89 to 109, while commercial robberies decreased by nearly 8 percent, 39 to 36 year to year.
After busting a Brooklyn-based burglary ring earlier this year with increased surveillance in North New Hyde Park, Searingtown, Manhassett Hills and Roslyn Heights, and checking license plates of cars cruising through those areas, the Third Precinct noticed a sudden spurt of burglaries again toward the end of the year being tied by another group of people, according to Third Precinct Chief Inspector Kevin Canavan.
“Our efforts are continuing with that,” he said. “A lot of the serious crimes we have here are crimes against property.”
The increase in commercial burglaries was tied a single offender who robbed convenience stores along Hillside Avenue by throwing fire hydrant caps through the windows of the stores and quickly grabbing “whatever he could grab,” Canavan said, including cash lottery tickets and cash.
A man was eventually caught with a cache of lottery tickets that the police were able to trace the locations of the break-ins, Canavan said. Police also determined the man was stealing the hydrant caps from the Manhasset-Lakeville water works.
The winter season is a prime time for burglaries because the time change with shorter daylight hours gives would-be thieves a larger window of opportunity as it get dark earlier in the day.
“What we managed to do this year was to put more emphasis on quality of life stuff,” Canavan said.
Canavan said a shift in strategy at area malls, including the Lake Success Mall and Roosevelt Field, helped to reduce the incidence of petit larcenies and criminal mischief. The Third Precinct took some of its plan clothes officers out of the malls and put uniformed officers in patrol cars in the parking lots, which also had an impact on car thefts.
“Roosevelt Field boosts our numbers up. We got the officers out of the mall and into the parking lot,” Canavan said. “It makes an impression out there. The more cops that are visible, it prevents the opportunity for people to do crimes.”
Prior to the tactical shift, police had noted a pattern of stolen cars moving between Roosevelt Field and the Green Acres shopping mall. With the increased police presence outdoors, a period of four months ensued during which no cars were stolen from the Roosevelt Field parking lots, according to Canavan.
The Third Precinct covers the second largest geographical area in the county, encompassing an area with a northern border of Manhasset Hills and Roslyn Heights, extending south into Hempstead, and traversing from the Floral Park-Bellerose border, extending east to Westbury and New Cassel, where the largest number of assaults take place.
There was a 23 percent increase in felony assaults between last year and the previous year, from 108 to 133. Among other violent crimes, there were three murders in 2010 – the same as in 2009 – while 10 reported rapes occurred the past year, compared to 11 reported rapes during the prior year. Criminal sexual acts dropped from three last year to one incident this year. Cases of sexual abuse doubled in number, from three last year to six this year.
There has been a marked increase in drug arrests during 2010 compared to the prior year, according to Sgt. Tom Ianucci, who declined to quantify the degree to which illegal drug trafficking has increased year to year. He has been leading a staff of 10 officers who operate in plain clothes or undercover in the Third Precinct’s anti-crimes for the past year.
The biggest problem is illicitly-peddled prescription drugs because of ease of access through bogus prescriptions handled by unscrupulous pharmacists who see big profits from the trade, according to Ianucci.
“It’s a major problem in this area. We make several arrests a week,” he said, “It’s a business, like anything else, and the dollar speaks.”
In one recent case, officers in Ianucci’s unit caught a suspect who was ferrying 3,000 pills to Boston from Florida, a location of ready access because of the large number of pain-treatment centers there and the ease of abusing its system, Ianucci said.
Variations of oxycodon, prescribed for acute pain, or lab-created ecstasy pills – powerful amphetamines – are particularly popular.
The anti-crimes unit also busted a trio who suspects who had stolen a doctor’s prescription pad for synthetic narcotic painkillers when a suspicious pharmacist at a Hillside Avenue pharmacy reported his misgivings about the prescription to the police. Two busts of suspects with ecstasy also occurred – on in Westbury, the other in New Hyde Park.
In perhaps the most dramatic bust of the year for his unit, two officers observed a couple divvying up 50 “decks” or individual packets of heroin in the parking lot of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road. They arrested them, drove out to their “connection” in the couple’s car, drawing out the supplier and capturing him with an additional 220 heroin packets after a protracted car chase.
“My guys interview them, and we get the location of the main supplier of Long Island for this brand name of heroin called Big Boss coming from Bronx, supplying most of Long Island,” Ianucci said.
The apparent increase in heroin use locally is a matter of economics – and the immediate effect on those who choose to use it, Ianucci said.
“It just comes in waves. It’s supply and demand,” he said. “The cost drops, people use it and get addicted to it and you get epidemic of use in certain areas.”
In a major marijuana bust a few months ago, Ianucci and his partner investigated and busted a “grow house” in Carle Place on a tip from a neighbor. There was a strong odor of the marijuana plants being grown in the basement of the house, which was equipped with a high-tech air circulation system that was venting the aroma outside the house. Ianucci said the unoccupied house’s electric meter was spinning much faster than it should because of the air circulation system and the high-powered lights set up for the plants, which could be glimpsed through a basement window.
“Nobody’s home in the house, but the meter’s spinning,” Ianucci said. “And the windows are tar-papered on the inside.”
The police officers waited for the plant’s attendant to show up, intercepted at the door of the house and convinced him to permit a consent search of the house, which could make the court more lenient on him. The bust yielded 64 mature marijuana plants, which the police estimated were being harvested for seven pounds of pot every six weeks with a street value of $4,000.
