By Kathianne Boniello
Crime in the Bayside-based 111th Precinct fell 16 percent in the first three months of 2000, including a nearly 50 percent decline in burglaries, from year-earlier levels, police said.
There were 85 reported burglaries in the opening quarter, down 46.5 percent from 159 in the first three months last year, Officer Louis Cruz said. The only major crime category to increase significantly so far this year was robberies, which jumped 62 percent to 47 incidents this year from 29 reported incidents in the same 1999 span.
Car thefts, another chronic problem in the precinct, also declined slightly to 184 reported incidents the latest period from 202 thefts in the opening 1999 quarter, he said. While grand larceny auto declined slightly, it was the 111th's largest crime category in terms of the numbers of incidents reported.
Cruz said reported incidents in the seven major crime categories had dropped 16 percent so far this year to 398 incidents in 2000 from 474 in the year-ago period.
The seven major crimes are murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft.
Overall crime has declined in the precinct and the city throughout the last several years, but burglaries and auto thefts have been the major problems in the 111th Precinct during that time. The 111th Precinct, which is based in Bayside, also covers Little Neck, Douglaston, Hollis Hills, Auburndale and parts of Flushing.
Capt. Anthony Mullen, who took command of the 111th Precinct in December, has worked to combat burglaries and car thefts, even going so far as to assign Lt. Dan Heffernan to handle cases of auto theft.
Expensive cars and easy parkway and expressway access make the area a target for car thieves. The Clearview and Long Island expressways and the Cross Island Parkway either run through or border the 111th Precinct.
Police statistics showed that robberies increased markedly along with grand larcenies, which jumped 20 percent from 55 incidents in the first quarter last year to 66 incidents so far in 2000.
Felonious assaults declined about 50 percent in the precinct from 28 incidents in 1999 to 14 in the first three months of this year, Cruz said. There has been one reported rape in the 111th Precinct in 2000, and only one in 1999, he said.
There was one murder so far this year, Cruz said, compared to no murders in the precinct last year.
In January 2000 a Long Island man going to work at the Beech Hills apartment complex in Douglaston tied up a co-worker at gunpoint and allegedly shot his boss to death before turning the gun on himself, police said.
Juan Rolan, of Mastic, L.I., survived surgery to save his life at North Shore University Hospital the same day and was later charged with murder.
