Allstate Auto Insurance

The number of car thefts on the Island is falling

Date: Jan 18, 2005
Contributor: Allan Lehner

The number of car thefts on the Island is falling, but where you live - or park - could make all the difference.


What are the odds that your car will get stolen on Long Island?

If you're fortunate enough to live in one of the Island's tonier North Shore villages, chances are excellent that it's right where you left it.

But if you parked your car in Hempstead, Port Washington or Freeport, or in parts of the Town of Islip, the chances aren't nearly as good, according to a Newsday analysis of theft reports.

The good news is that, even in areas with the highest rates, auto thefts are falling, thanks to better antitheft devices. A total of 5,707 auto thefts were reported to Long Island's county, town and village police departments in 2003, the most recent year available, a decline of 4 percent from the previous year. What's more, theft rates here are low relative to most other U.S. metropolitan areas.

In the Village of Hempstead, police took 473 stolen vehicle reports in 2003. With a population of about 54,000, that is 8.75 thefts per 1,000 people - the highest rate of any Long Island police jurisdiction in Newsday's analysis.

Port Washington had only 22 thefts in 2003, as reported by the state, but that averages out to a rate of 7.8 thefts for every 1,000 people. The Village of Freeport was another of the Island's hot spots in 2003, with 205 thefts, for a rate of 4.65 thefts for every 1,000 people.

In contrast, police in many of the Island's wealthier villages, located far from main highways and where residents are more apt to park in garages, recorded no thefts at all in 2003, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. They included Kensington, Kings Point and Sands Point in Nassau County. In Suffolk, no reports were taken by Asharoken, Head of the Harbor, Huntington Bay, Lloyd Harbor, Nissequogue and Ocean Beach.

An exact calculation of theft rates isn't always possible on Long Island for individual communities because most are served by county police, which keeps statistics by precincts, which include at least several communities.

And, police say, precinct or townwide figures for car thefts and other crimes are boosted by the presence of large shopping malls, major railroad stations and other places where large numbers of cars often are left unattended. That can make an entire precinct seem riskier than it really is.

Take the Nassau County Police Third Precinct. It had the highest rate of thefts in 2003 of the department's eight precincts, 3.36 thefts for every 1,000 residents. Shaped roughly in a bowtie, the precinct is in the county's center from New Hyde Park to New Cassel and includes the giant Roosevelt Field shopping center.

Det. Bill Competello, a Nassau County auto theft investigator, said the mall is a thief's dream, with many expensive cars parked there, many exits and easy escape. "Access to the parkways is phenomenal," he said. The precinct also includes part of the Nassau Coliseum.

To the south, Nassau's Fifth Precinct, containing the Green Acres shopping center, had a theft rate almost as high as the Third's. It covers an area abutting the New York City border from South Valley Stream north through Elmont and east through West Hempstead. Competello said its location adjacent to Queens is an aggravating factor; he said many thieves arrested come from Queens and that police pursuits from Nassau into the borough are common.

Police in the Fifth note, however, that a significant percentage of theft reports everywhere are false, filed to collect insurance settlements, and that the Green Acres Mall has, at least in the past, been a popular location for fake theft reports. Fifth Precinct Officer Thomas Schubert, a member along with partner Gaspar Arbisi of a special multi-precinct task force that targets insurance fraud, said, for example, that 42 thefts were considered "legitimate" last year at Green Acres and another 12 were false and resulted in arrests.

National crime experts and police say the level of auto crime in any region is affected also by socioeconomic factors and the number of transients moving through it. "We're the hub of Nassau County," said Deputy Insp. Vincent Neefus of the Hempstead Village police department, noting the huge bus terminal, court complex and rail station.

Further, he contends, Hempstead's theft-to-population ratio is artificially high because the census missed 15,000 to 20,000 people, based on factors such as garbage pickups and school attendance.

Freeport police Chief Mike Woodward cites the location within the village of a busy railroad station, major stores and waterfront restaurants and parking for casino and fishing boats.

Still, the department said, total thefts through Dec. 16, 2004 - 173 - suggest a decline for the entire year below a year earlier. He credits better antitheft devices in cars, which tend to defeat casual thefts. "Most of the cars we see stolen are joyride-type vehicles," he said. Many, he said, are stolen by youngsters, or by spouses in domestic disputes.




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