By JOSEPH KELLARD
Overall, the number of major crime incidents in Island Park ‹ including murder, rape, robbery, burglary, felonious assault and auto theft ‹ jumped from 16 to 29, while in Oceanside the number remained steady at 53. Police compared the six months from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2005, to the same span in 2006.
In Oceanside, while reports of car thefts increased from 11 to 15 and robberies from three to seven, burglaries declined from 29 to 24 incidents, and assault, rape and murder each dropped by one. In Island Park, rape was the only major crime that remained the same or showed a decrease, while the reports for assault, robbery and auto theft each increased by one or two incidents, and burglaries nearly tripled, from four to 11 incidents.
Fourth Precinct Commanding Officer Inspector Richard McCarrick said that about 20 of the burglaries that were committed in both towns took place over four to six weeks early this summer, and that police arrested six suspects in connection with the incidents.
"Those six arrests pretty much closed out the burglaries in Oceanside and Island Park," McCarrick said, adding that one suspect is accused of breaking into houses, businesses and cars to feed a drug habit. "A lot of the residential burglars are people looking to support some type of habit and get what they can."
Island Park Mayor Jim Ruzicka said the village has problems with drug dealers and users. "That brings up theft and burglary because they have to supply money for their habit," he said.
Ruzicka said that most drug activity revolves around the village's business district on North Long Beach Road. "So we've asked the inspector to really pay attention to that area," he said.
McCarrick said that burglaries in Oceanside would have shown an even greater decrease had it not been for the early-summer spree. "Once we made those six arrests, the pattern stopped again in Oceanside," he said.
Mark Greenberg of Oceanside, who started a 4th Precinct- and Town of Hempstead-sponsored Neighborhood Watch program on his street last October, said his community's crime statistics were encouraging.
"But what are the real details?" Greenberg said. "Have there been more or less incidents, more phone calls to Oceanside that are preventing crime? Are people being more proactive, maybe in looking out and calling police more? Or is it just that we're lucky? Or are we reporting less things?"
McCarrick said that in any given month, the statistics can vary widely, and he attributes almost no value to the half-year numbers. "The half-year crime stats go up to June, and it just so happens in the month and a half before, burglaries that were down jumped way up," he said.
McCarrick noted that with major crimes, there is no particular time of year that they generally go up in the way that DWIs increase, for instance, during the summer in Island Park, which is known for its outdoor restaurant-bars that attract many patrons. He puts more stock in 12-month statistics. "Then you can really compare to the whole of last year," he said.
The inspector also said that many arrests are made thanks to residents like Greenberg, noting that alert citizens played a part in the precinct's burglary arrests. "Some of the arrests were made because we got calls from observant neighbors, some because of police officers on patrol who saw suspicious activity, and some after some very good detective investigation," he said.
Ruzicka said the village has given the police leads about areas and houses to watch for drug activity, and that arrests have resulted from these tips. While the mayor said the police are active and do "a good job" in Island Park, he believes there needs to be more officers patrolling the streets, and that new officers must get acquainted with the village. "The problem is there aren't enough of them," he said, "and they've gotten some new people on the force out of the academy who they are in the process of training."
The 4th Precinct, which covers Oceanside, Island Park, the Five Towns, East Rockaway, Lido Beach and Point Lookout, has 163 police officers, and in June the precinct added 18 officers, raising its ranks by 10 from 2005.
"We have a lot of new junior officers who are learning their way around the communities," McCarrick said, "and they don't always work the same posts like the veteran officers did because they have to learn the entire precinct."
Island Park's only murder in 2006 was a case involving Ali Ceber, 43, who originally confessed to stabbing his ex-girlfriend, Violet Karagiannis, in her home on May 29, according to police. At his arraignment, Ceber pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder.
Oceanside's lone murder last year involved Tafare Berryman, a Brooklyn varsity basketball player at C.W. Post who left a riot outside an Island Park nightclub on April 3, 2005, police said, and was gunned down on Long Beach Road at Henrietta Avenue soon afterward. Berryman's killer remains at large.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
