By Kathianne Boniello
Crime in northeast Queens’ 111th Police Precinct was relatively quiet in 2001 except for a perennial thorn in the precinct’s side: car thefts.
For years violent crime has dropped in the 111th, leaving officers to focus on quality-of-life issues such as drivers who double-park or school safety.
But despite the precinct’s overall decrease in major crimes, a few categories have refused to go away, including automobile thefts and robberies, each of which increased in 2001, police said. The Police Department tracks and keeps statistics on seven major crime categories, including murder, rape, felonious assault, grand larceny, burglary, robbery and grand larceny auto.
Police statistics show a 5.9 percent decline in reported crime between 2001 and 2002 in the 111th Precinct, which includes the communities of Bayside, Little Neck, Douglaston, Oakland Gardens, Auburndale and parts of Flushing and Hollis Hills.
There were 641 reported auto thefts in the precinct in 2001, Officer John Sullivan said, compared to 606 in 2000 for an increase of nearly 6 percent.
An analysis of the crime statistics show that more than half of those car thefts — 360 — occurred in the last six months of 2001.
Grand larceny was also a problem this year in northeast Queens, but a declining one. Statistics reveal a 5.7 percent drop in burglaries in the 111th, with 318 reported in 2001 and 336 in 2000.
Burglaries and robberies were also reported in significant numbers in northeast Queens. In 2001, there were 345 reported burglaries, a decline of about 18 percent from 2000, when 421 incidents were recorded, Sullivan said.
While there were significantly fewer robberies than burglaries the number of robberies was on the rise in 2001, Sullivan said. The officer said there were 153 reported robberies in the 111th last year, a 6.2 percent increase from the 144 reported in 2000.
Felonious assault decreased nearly 40 percent in the 111th Precinct in 2001, with 58 incidents last year and 96 reported the year before.
The number of reported rapes also declined dramatically, with two recorded in 2001 and six reported in 2000.
There was one murder in the 111th Precinct last year, when the body of Miguel Angel Martinez, 20, of Murray Hill, was found behind the Seville Diner in Douglaston. The murder, which has remained unsolved, occurred in July.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
