Deputy Inspector Breaks Down Crime Stats at Board Meeting

Deputy Inspector Christopher Tamola, commanding officer of the in Forest Hills, stopped by themeeting in Kew Gardens Wednesday night to brief residents on what's been happening in their neighborhood.

On the whole, he said, crime is down, but he broke down a handful of troubling statistics in the area to help tamp down fears that the troubled economy has sent some crimes — especially robberies — trending upward.

"We do have a few things. We have some auto break[ins], there are some other crimes that do occur from time to time, but overall we're down with the major crimes," he said.

Short term numbers may not look pretty, but Tamola was confident with his officers' enforcement so far this year and with the precinct-wide stifling of major crimes in the area.

In the most recent COMPSTAT crime report from the 112 Precinct, robberies saw a 600 percent jump over the same one-week period from last year at the end of October — a number Tamola admitted looks inflated when faced with the reality that the number of robberies actually jumped from one to seven.

Year to date, robberies are up just over 13 percent from last year, an increase that police have been quick to attribute to youth-on-youth crime: high school kids stealing each other's cell phones and spending money.

One of the most recent examples of a crime that is more serious than the child-on-child variety was an on Metropolitan Avenue on Halloween.

Margaret Beale, a Forest Hills resident, brought up her concern over crimes in the area in front of the board.

"A number of people have raised the fact that a lot of crime is beginning to occur along Metropolitan Avenue," Beale said. "Bicycles that are chained in front of Restaurant, somebody comes along and is cutting the chain and stealing the bicycles."

Beale asked the board to request an increase of police patrols along Metropolitan Avenue.

In other areas, Tamola praised the declining numbers of burglaries, which have seen a decrease this year, and said he was proud of the job his precinct has done to quell the numbers over the course of his tenure."

"Burglaries, we have outstanding numbers in burglaries, we're down 29 percent," Tamola said. "When I first got to the 112 Precinct … that was our primary crime, was burglaries."

Looking to the future, the deputy inspector said, local police will be looking to step up enforcement on crimes like grand larceny, which he admitted has a tendency to increase during the holiday season. Losing a little pocket money isn't the only risk when a wallet or purse is stolen. People who lose credit cards, social security information and identification are also at serious risk of identity theft.

"Grand larcenies increase, pickpockets increase, as does the use of stolen credit cards," Tamola said. "Protect your possessions when you're out shopping, protect your credit cards and you protect your identity."