Text Article for Final Project

Ben Golden
April 14, 2008
500 word story

Hempstead Continues Fight against High Crime

For years, the village of Hempstead, N.Y. has been given the reputation of being a high crime area. Just last year there were over 2600 total offenses that occurred ranging from murder to rape to even prostitution. With projections for this year expected to come close to 2500 offenses, it is an improvement but is it enough for the residents of Hempstead to feel safe?
According to both Hempstead Mayor Wayne Hall and Police Chief Joe Wing, crime has been steadily decreasing in the area for the better part of the last decade. “I believe the overall crime for 2007 dropped about nine percent from 2006,” said Wing, “So even though some might say that the crime is high, comparatively speaking, its been dropping. We’re looking to have that number decrease, to increase our efforts and to continue the decline of crime.” The drop in crime should be assurance for residents however Mayor Hall warns that not all the crimes are dropping. “The one thing that has not gone down is the violent crime and when I say violent crime I mean assaults and things like that.” Another problem that the police department faces is that only 1 out of every 3 offenses are cleared, or caught. As you can see in the graphs below, the ratio of offenses to those cleared are quite noticeable.


2007 Totals (Offenses vs. Cleared)
2008 Totals (January and February)

There is good news for the future though. With the addition of new police officers both Wing and Hall expect crime numbers will keep dropping. With the police force totaling 115 officers with 5 more expected to join, the department is trying to attack crime aggressively. Their biggest targets will be the illegal drug business and theft. In 2007, the total monetary value for damages to residents, vehicles, etc. surpassed $2.1 million dollars. “Unfortunately a lot of people will pull up to a 7/11, leave their car running, run in thinking they’re going to get a cup of coffee and come out and their car is gone.” said Wing. Concerning the drug problem, police have been able to isolate a majority of the drug incidents to the areas around Terrace Avenue and Bedell Street. While this is not to say drug incidents do not occur elsewhere, they have targeted these two streets as being high drug areas. An initiative has been put into place at the beginning of this year to begin undercover operations where officers pretend to be drug dealers and then apprehend approaching buyers. “Our undercover operations have been quite successful.” said Wing.
With its high population and surrounding smaller towns, it is unlikely that Hempstead will have low crime rates but as Chief Wing said, the numbers are steadily improving. Mayor Hall put it best saying, “Just because we are predominantly minorities here that does not mean we can’t have a nice community where everybody could walk through the community and feel safe, so that’s what I’m working on.”