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Overcast A community clashes over crime statistics
One Lakeview group says area is safe while another sees need for ShotSpotter
Numbers don’t lie, but do they really tell the whole truth?
In Lakeview, there has been an ongoing dispute between two community groups about the frequency and presence of crime. While Nassau County Police Department statistics indicate that the crime rate in Lakeview is low, there are some who claim it is at an all-time high in the 1.2-square-mile hamlet.
Bea Bayley, president of the NAACP Lakeview branch, is among those concerned about the crime rate. She and her supporters are convinced that bringing a ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System into the small community would go a long way toward reducing crime and deterring criminals from coming into Lakeview.
“Crime is up in Lakeview in particular,” Bayley said. “We have never had this much crime before and of course we are trying to do something about it, working with the children in the community and the parents, and so hopefully something good will come out of it.”
It is that desire to install ShotSpotter that is likely at the heart of the dissension over the crime rate, according to Sgt. Edward Grim, supervisor of the Fifth Precinct’s Problem Oriented Policing Unit. “The issue is, I believe, that one group wants to get the Shotspotter put in,” he said. “And I guess, to justify that, they have to show that there’s an issue with crime and, in particular, it would have to be violent crime,” he said.
Another possible cause of the conflict, Grim added, is that Bayley’s group is looking at county-wide crime statistics, where numbers are sometimes doubled as certain occurrences are listed under multiple categories. Essentially, their numbers are wrong.
“The crime is very low for the neighborhood over there,” said Grim, who has been a police department representative for Lakeview for the last 10 years. “I report it on a monthly basis to the civic group. And this other group has not been attending these meetings.”
Bayley admitted that the crime statistics she received were county-wide and possibly inaccurate for Lakeview. Still, she insisted, crime is up in the community.
