Parsing LI's crime statistics

Daily Point

Overall crimes hit a decade's high in Nassau, down in Suffolk

With the 2024 election less than two months away, crime rates again are a concern for voters on Long Island and a talking point for candidates. After breaking down the most recent available data on local crime statistics, the Point has found that — no surprise — there is plenty of data each side can cite to make its argument.

In Nassau County, the overall number of reported crimes increased 9% in the last decade, according to data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice — though all of that increase came in the last two years after a long, gradual decline. Violent crimes were at a 10-year high, with 172.1 cases per 100,000 people in 2023, up from a rate of 150.5 in 2014. Cases of aggravated assault, which includes attempted murder and severe injury to another person, nearly doubled from 955 in 2018 to 1,668 in 2023, after years of being largely stable.

Property-related crimes have been more of a roller coaster. After declining 32% from 2014 to 2021, when the pandemic-related lockdown lowered opportunities for shoplifting and home break-ins, property-related crimes rocketed up in the last two years. Largely led by an increase in larceny crimes and auto thefts, property crimes in Nassau were at a rate of 1,217.3 per 100,000 people in 2023, up 59% from a rate of 765.6 per 100,000 in 2021.

The number of burglaries, however, was 33% lower in 2023 from a decade ago. Shootings, too, were the lowest since 2014, with only 12 incidents in 2023 compared with 33 back then.

In stark contrast to Nassau, overall crime rates declined in Suffolk County in the last decade, from a rate of 1,737.5 per 100,000 people in 2014 to a rate of 1,351.3 in 2023 — despite a significant bump up from 2021 to 2022. The number of robberies halved, dropping from a rate of 42.1 in 2014 to 20.6 last year, while the number of burglaries also plummeted from 3,338 reported cases to 809. The overall number of property crimes dropped from 24,356 in 2014 to 19,235, and the rate of aggravated assault cases remained mostly unchanged at 69.4 per 100,000 people. Shootings in Suffolk also dipped, dropping 32% since 2014.

However, motor vehicle thefts in Suffolk County were at a decadelong high, owing to the increased targeting of luxury cars and a continued thriving market for stolen auto parts in the state. After dropping to around 830 cases a year in 2019 from 1,240 in 2014, the number of auto thefts rose to 1,512 in 2023. Auto theft rates in Nassau County also picked up in recent years, with 919 cases reported in 2023 compared with 629 in 2021. Through the first three months of 2024, 448 vehicles were reported stolen on Long Island, which would mark a reduction if that pace continues. The spike in auto thefts on Long Island through 2023 is in line with the rest of the state, which saw a 15% increase in thefts from 2022 to 2023, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The data does not include vehicles that were recovered.

— Karthika Namboothiri karthika.namboothiri@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Not digging it

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Final Point

Odd LI tweeting over a Trump meeting

One of the more unusual social media exchanges of the week in Long Island political circles involved Sheya Landa, a part-time patronage hire of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman who is the son of Benjamin Landa, a nursing home businessman.

Earlier this week, a website called Belaaz News reported as a scoop that none other than Donald Trump would hold an "exclusive Jewish roundtable fundraising meeting with Benjamin Landa, Louis Scheiner and others" on Thursday at Trump Tower.

As it turned out, Trump on Thursday was in Las Vegas to address the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit, where the ex-president claimed Israel "will no longer exist" if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected (as he once said the Second Amendment would disappear if Democrats took the White House and "you won’t have a country").

In response to the Belaaz tweet reporting plans for the New York meeting, Sheya Landa replied Monday: "Who told you this information??? I was reached out by @TheBelaaz and they kept asking me and I specifically told them I can’t discuss the details as @TeamTrump asked for this not to be made public. And then was told moments later that a trump spokesperson had told them the details."

"Very disappointed that @TheBelaaz would post something without approval from any of the organizers. This event might get cancelled thanks to @TheBelaaz." Three minutes later, Landa posted, "Thanks to @TheBelaaz this event has now been canceled."

But now it looks as if the meeting may yet be possible. The earlier stated date for the Trump Tower meeting may have been changed or simply proved inaccurate.

On Tuesday, Belaaz said in a "clarification" that it "originally posted about the Sept. 15 event at @LandaSheya’s request, despite initial uncertainties. When a Trump insider confirmed the date change, Belaaz updated the story ... Fundraisers aren’t canceled just because they’re leaked to media, especially when $5M is at stake." Sheya Landa expressed thanks for the change and praised the Belaaz site.

What was behind the kerfuffle couldn’t be immediately determined. Some of Sheya Landa’s past postings — apparently not authorized by Blakeman or any other party officials — have been stridently political. In August 2023, after one posting equated President Joe Biden with the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin, a Blakeman spokesman said he is a part-time press assistant, paid $35 per hour.

But as noted last year, Sheya Landa’s ‘X’ account describes him as a "senior advisor" to Blakeman, while including the disclaimer, "Opinions expressed here are my own." Photos on his account feature him with Blakeman and shaking hands with Trump.

His father, Benjamin Landa of Woodmere, was previously embroiled with New York State over a large Long Island nursing facility. In March, a lawsuit was resolved when he was ordered, as a previous landowner of the Cold Spring Hills Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, to pay a reported $500,000 of a $2 million restitution to the facility. An independent health care monitor was to be installed. State Attorney General Letitia James filed the lawsuit.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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