Deputy Inspector Christopher Tamola goes over crime statistics in the 112th Precinct for the past month and for the year at the Precinct Community Council meeting on Wednesday, April 18. Tamola noted that they are up in robberies and felony assaults, but down in burglaries and grand larcenies for the year so far. Forum Newsgroup Photo by Luis Gronda.
Crime is a mixed bag in Forest Hills and Rego Park, with two crimes on the rise and two others seeing a decrease, according to the latest crime statistics from the 112th Precinct announced at April’s 112th Precinct Community Council meeting.
Deputy Inspector Christopher Tamola, commanding officer of the 112th, first spoke about two anti-semitic graffiti incidents that happened over the past month.
The most recent one occurred on Friday, April 13, when police found a spray-painted swastika and racial slurs on the overpass of the Grand Central Parkway service road by 64th Avenue and 64th Road in Forest Hills.
The other incident happened on Saturday, March 24 when police found a swastika in a stairway of an apartment building on 64th Road.
“It’s sad that this stuff continues in this day and age and you still have these bias incidents,” said Tamola.
Referring to the Grand Central service road incident, Tamola said that although they don’t know who the person is that vandalized the overpass, they do plan on using a method that they have used to solve other graffiti crimes.
He said that the person left a tag that read “OES” next to the graffiti. People who draw graffiti usually write their tag next to the drawing to signify who did it.
Police can then copy that tag and put it into a database of tags they’ve collected. Once an arrest is made for a graffiti-related incident, they enter the tag that person is associated with and see if it matches with other cases.
If they do find a match, that person will usually face multiple charges and fines for all the incidents throughout New York City matching that one tag.
Tamola said that people who do graffiti have a different mindset than someone who commits other types of crimes.
“It’s like they want people to know who’s doing it, and that’s why they have those individual tags,” he said.
As for the overall crime statistics in the area, Tamola said that the 112th is down nine crimes for the year compared to 2011, which is a 4 percent decrease.
For the last 28 day period, they are up in robberies—12 this year versus six last year—and they are up in felony assaults—six this year compared to three from last year.
Tamola explained that four out of those 12 robberies were only people that were arrested for shoplifting.
He said that, in those cases, the people arrested started fighting with the security guards and that escalated into counting as a robbery.
Crimes that are down in the area are burglary and grand larceny. According to Tamola, there have been only three burglaries in this four week period, compared to 14 last year, and for the year, 28 burglaries in the 112th this year and 41 at this time last year.
He added that, for that type of crime, they are down 28 percent over the last two years.
Grand larcenies in the area have also gone down, from 128 last year at this time to 119 for 2012.
Tamola said that this is a type of crime that usually drives the statistics up, so it’s good that they are down for the year.
He did remind people to be careful of their belongings so that those grand larceny numbers stay down.
“The best way to reduce that is to get the message out to the community: take care of your identity, take care of your possessions,” he said.
By Luis Gronda
