Keeping a cap on crime in Lynbrook

Statistics reveal that violent and property crime in Lynbrook has not changed drastically in the last 10 years.

Statistics courtesy of the FBI

Lynbrook police patrol the village 24 hours a day.

Mary Malloy/Herald

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In the past decade, the numbers of violent and property crimes in Lynbrook have remained fairly constant, with the village seeing small fluctuations in its already low crime statistics. And the village’s efforts to further curb crime show no signs of slowing down.

“The main thing is patrol,” said Mayor Bill Hendrick. “Just seeing a policeman makes you feel safe, and you are safe.” There are five officers posted throughout the village 24 hours a day, according to Hendrick, who said that criminals become aware of highly patrolled areas and know to avoid them. He also mentioned that the Police Department has license plate readers mounted on two of its vehicles, to scan passing traffic for drivers with outstanding warrants.

“We’ve had some major crime — I won’t say we haven’t,” he said. Having a village police force quickens response time and allows the village to form relationships with the school districts to foster awareness of wrongdoing, Hendrick added. “We’re very active in the schools,” he said. “We have the men to do it.”

The village was recognized as one of the 25 safest municipalities in New York state by SafeWise, a company that aims to educate the public about safety and provide home security system reviews. It publishes an annual list of the state’s safest municipalities based on population and crime statistics from the FBI. Lynbrook was ranked No. 24 on the most recent list, which calculates the number of crimes for every 1,000 residents.

Although the FBI discourages taking ranked lists too seriously, SafeWise’s analysis of Lynbrook found that there were .61 violent crimes per 1,000 people and 8.4 property crimes per 1,000 people in 2013, when the village’s population was 19,528.

“We look for trends weekly and monthly — we don’t wait for the year-end statistics,” said Chief of Police Joseph Neve, who added that one of the benefits of having a village police department is the ability to configure patrols according to crime trends. County police aren’t able to provide the same kind of coverage, he said.