By Kathianne Boniello
Crime dropped more than 15 percent in the Bayside-based 111th Precinct in the first six months of 2000, police said, with significant declines in nearly all of the major crimes the New York Police Department monitors.
Officer George Jensen said crime in the precinct, which covers Bayside, Little Neck, Douglaston, Oakland Gardens and parts of Auburndale, Fresh Meadows, Flushing and Hollis Hills, has decreased by 40 percent over the last two years.
The biggest problems for 111th Commanding Officer Capt. Anthony Mullen and his staff were auto thefts, grand larcenies and burglaries in the first six months of 2000. Only grand larcenies increased significantly in the first half of the year, Jensen said, reaching 147 reported incidents in 2000, up from 137 in 1999.
The only other crime to increase in the precinct so far this year was murder, with two reported in 2000. There were no murders in the first half of 1999.
One murder in 2000 took place in January in a Douglaston co-op, when a Suffolk County man allegedly killed his wife near their home in Dix Hills, L.I. in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, and then came to work at the Beech Hills Co-operative complex. According to police, the worker tied up a colleague and shot and killed his boss before attempting suicide.
Overall crime from Jan. 1 to July 2 this year dropped 16.5 percent from the same period in 1999, he said. In all, there were 770 reported incidents in 2000, compared to a total of 923 incidents 1999.
The most serious problems for the 111th Precinct in the last several years have been automobile thefts, which dropped nearly 17 percent in the first half of the year, and burglaries, which plummeted 31 percent in the same period. There were 331 incidents of car theft in 2000 compared to 398 in 1999, police said, while there were 171 reported burglaries in 2000 and 248 in 1999.
Grand larceny auto has been the most significant problem for the precinct, which is bordered by several major expressways. When Mullen began as commanding officer of the 111th in late December he said he would find new ways to target the problem.
Community Affairs Officer Anthony Lombardi credited the officers on patrol for the precinct
