Nassau Police Battle Rise in Drug-fueled Burglaries

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, Police Commissioner Thomas Dale talk about burglary arrest.

Nassau County police have made a top priority of combating a wave of burglaries that authorities say is being fueled by a combination of Long Island’s heroin and prescription drug epidemic and unseasonably warm weather, among other factors.

Marc Matarazzo, 29-year-old Carle Place man who allegedly broke into two pharmacies in two days, became the 77th burglary suspect arrested in the past eight weeks. Of the 77 suspects who have been linked to 34 of 225 burglaries so far this year, 20 percent were motivated by drug dependency, authorities said.

“We believe a significant part of these burglaries are associated with prescription drug abuse,” Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said Thursday at police headquarters in Mineola while flanked by Acting Nassau Police Commissioner Thomas Dale.

Crime statistics show a 69-percent year-to-date increase in overall burglaries and an 110-percent increase in residential burglaries, according to police data comparing the first five weeks of 2011 and 2012. Fifty four of the 77 suspects apprehended have been linked to home break ins, officials said.

Burglars are also more likely to strike this year as opposed to January and February of last year, when Long Islanders were too busy shoveling snow from back-to-back blizzards, officials noted. Suffolk County police similarly saw a lack of murders during the first months of last year, which was also attributed to the harsh weather at the time.

“Although the numbers are presently high we know that we have impacted and will continue to impact the burglary issue until it is reduced,” Dale said. “If you break into a home we will find you and we will arrest you.”

Steven Skrynecki, the chief of the department, said police brass have been deploying the Criminal Intelligence Rapid Response Team (CIRRT) into areas hit hardest by the crime wave, and those officers are moving about on an hourly basis. He added that the police department is also tracking license plates of vehicles that have been coming in and out of communities that have been effected by the rise of burglaries.

He added that people coming from Queens and Brooklyn have become a “constant problem” for police, with homes near parkways and other major roadways especially vulnerable because burglars prefer a quick and easy getaway.

Police have recently picked up two women with a “$300 a day” drug habit, who allegedly committed seven burglaries, and another man arrested in North Valley Stream who allegedly committed nine burglaries.

Nassau County Police Benevolent Association President James Carver, who leads the union that represents uniformed patrol officers and is a critic of Mangano’s proposal to turn four of the departments eight precinct station houses in “community policing centers,” had his own theory on the rise in burglaries.

“I think the burglaries are up because you’re sending a signal out here that you’re closing precincts and you’ve given up,” he said. “I believe that’s the reason.”

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Nassau Police Battle Rise in Drug-fueled Burglaries