By Adam Pincus
“Looking to the end of the year we saw an increase in burglaries,” precinct commanding officer Deputy Inspector Douglas Rolston said. There were 45 from mid-December until Jan. 15, especially in apartment buildings, he said. He said the precinct had added 12 additional officers to high crime areas of the daytime tour, when most of the incidents are occurring, in an effort to bring the numbers back down.Rolston gave an overview Tuesday night of crime in the area at the 115th Police Precinct Community Council meeting, held at the station located at 92-15 Northern Blvd. in Jackson Heights, as well as offering advice on how to combat the burglaries. A representative from One Police Plaza also attended the meeting to give a presentation on the citywide efforts to combat graffiti.”Overall last year there was a 5.25 percent reduction in crime,” in the area, Rolston said, crediting police work and additional enforcement of quality of life issues. “Shooting incidents were down 66 percent compared with the year before. And last year there were 20 to 24 gun arrests in the precinct,” he said.To combat the rise in burglaries, he suggested residents make the most obvious adjustments first, such as locking doors and windows when leaving the apartment.”These are crimes of opportunity,” he said, describing how some thieves walk down a hallway testing all the knobs to discover which are left unlocked. “They are trying the doors, and when one is open they walk in,” he said.Earlier in the meeting, police officer Thomas Verni, from the training unit of the citywide Community Affairs office, gave a presentation on graffiti. He told the audience that the police divided the crime into different categories, including hate, gang, satanic, street and generic. Some of the most dangerous graffiti is hate graffiti, attacking groups or ethnicities, he said.”If someone feels this strongly to spray this hate graffiti,” he said, “they could take it to the physical level.”Lt. Paul Rasa, who directs special operations in the precinct, including anti-graffiti efforts, said there were 280 cleanups in the precinct last year, along with 21 arrests related to graffiti. He said a new power washer given by the 115th Precinct Community Council had been used to clean six buildings.East Elmhurst resident Murlaina Tindall said she was thrilled with the anti-graffiti work.”You have no idea how appreciative we are,” she said. “Because it is so hard to get other communities to share their power washers.”
