By:Anthony Rifilato
To make matters worse, a young Baldwin Harbor man was mysteriously found dead shortly after that, lying face-down in front of his stepfather's home on a bright day, his hands bound with duct tape, blood on his head.
While police officials say that these cases are still under investigation (the murder has not been solved as of press time), things are far from out of control in Baldwin.
They are adamant about the latest statistics, which indicate that crime is at an all-time low in Nassau County and Baldwin. And while the incidents in March and other acts of crime are taken very seriously, the perception that Baldwin is an unsafe community is just that.
"Baldwin is a good and safe place to live," said Inspector Patrick O'Connor of the First Precinct, who, along with Legislator Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin), presented statistics last week comparing crime in Baldwin with nearby communities in the First Precinct.
For instance, said O'Connor, homicides in the First Precinct are down 66 percent in 2004 from 2003, while sex crimes are down 36 percent and street robberies are down 49 percent.
Throughout the precinct, major crimes are down nearly 5 percent from 2003, and the statistics help the First Precinct in pinpointing problem areas and developing strategies to head off criminal activity.
"When I look at the numbers," said O'Connor, "it shows me how I need to plan for patrols to target this."
First, he explained, it is important that people realize that the murder of 23-year-old Michael Modica in Baldwin Harbor was neither random nor related to gang violence. It was very different, O'Connor explained, from the murder of Anthony Battaglia in Lynbrook, who was killed during a random mugging by gang members as he was walking home from the train station.
Modica was targeted for personal reasons, O'Connor said, though he could not provide more details because it could jeopardize the investigation.
O'Connor said that residents shouldn't feel threatened in their neighborhood because of Modica's death. "The way they found him is of course alarming to the neighborhood," said O'Connor. "But the investigation is ongoing and leads are being followed. Most murders are done by people who are known to each other."
Until Modica's death, there hadn't been a murder in Baldwin for several years, O'Connor and Scannell said. His was the only murder in Baldwin in 2004, one of two in the First Precinct this year. The other murder was in East Meadow, part of which is under the jurisdiction of the First Precinct.
"People have the perception that people are getting murdered on the streets of Baldwin, which is not the case," said Scannell. "We think it's a real perception issue. It's not the wild west."
Take gangs for instance, which aren't nearly as widespread as some may believe. "Gang activity in Baldwin isn't completely eliminated," said O'Connor, "but it's extremely low."
The First Precinct is unique in that it has the Community Response Team, part of Nassau County's Task Force Against Gangs, a unit specifically aimed at addressing gang activity and quality-of-life issues.
The unit consists of plainclothes and uniformed officers who patrol the precinct in both marked and unmarked vehicles and hold several meetings during the year to update the community, in addition to other initiatives.
"What we're trying to do is make sure we don't have a gang problem," said O'Connor, adding that the Baldwin School District has done a great job of addressing the issue. "You have to stay on top of it."
When it comes to crime overall, Baldwin is also faring pretty well, though since January it has had its share of criminal activity. There have been three sex offenses in Baldwin so far this year, four in East Meadow and one in Roosevelt. Two of the three in Baldwin, said O'Connor, were domestic incidents and not random.
What has been on the rise slightly in 2004 are commercial robberies, O'Connor said, which he attributed in part to a recent spate of armed robberies at a number of RadioShack locations in the First Precinct, two of which occurred in Baldwin.
The RadioShack robberies have also helped fuel talk of a declining and unsafe community, but O'Connor said that the robberies were part of a larger pattern stretching from New York City into Suffolk County, and that most or all of the suspects involved have been caught. Since then, he said, he has seen a dramatic decrease in commercial robberies.
Burglaries are also on the upswing throughout Nassau County, up 75 percent throughout the First Precinct, which is addressing the problem aggressively. The number of burglaries in the precinct has jumped to 98 in 2004 from 55 in 2003.
There have been 20 residential burglaries in Baldwin in 2004, 20 in Bellmore, 14 in Roosevelt and 18 in East Meadow. There are a number of reasons for this increase, O'Connor explained, ranging from the occasional ring of burglars that comes into Nassau County from the city to residents leaving front doors and windows open when they're not at home.
The pattern has since tapered off, O'Connor said, the result of aggressive enforcement that has involved increased patrols and the recent arrests of organized groups of burglars in New York City. "Hopefully, that will have an impact on the number of burglaries here," he said.
That has been the case with auto thefts as well, O'Connor said: There have been 26 stolen automobiles in Baldwin, the highest number so far in 2004, compared with 24 in Uniondale, 19 in East Meadow and 12 in Roosevelt.
People often leave their keys in the ignition, said O'Connor, though a large number of these thefts occurred at the Baldwin train station, which is an attractive target because people leave their cars there for long periods of time. "If a guy's coming out looking for cars, he goes to the train station," he said.
The trend also seems to be slowing down at the train station due to increased patrols, O'Connor said, which have included both uniformed and plainclothes officers and, when needed, some bike patrols as well. Last Friday, police arrested three men for breaking into cars in South Hempstead after a brief chase in which one officer sustained minor injuries.
O'Connor said the increased patrols are paying off. Still, he said, when he looks at the numbers, he strives to do better. "You can't become complacent," he said. "Our job is to let people know that we have to stay aggressive."
