Burglary Concerns Highlight Village Board Meeting

Police Commissioner Addresses Residents' Concerns Over Recent Burglaries

Garden City Police Commissioner Ernest Cipullo tackled many local residents’ worries about the recent string of burglaries in town.

“There has certainly been a lot of concern amongst the residents regarding the burglaries that we have been experiencing,” he said. “One burglary is one too many.”

The good news, Cipullo said, is that the village is currently below last year’s count. Even though there have been less burglaries this year, the department has made more burglary arrests. They arrested 11 people this year and nine people last year, he added.

Two burglaries on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24 are thought to be part of a larger ring of incidents throughout Nassau County due to the similarities in time of night and method of entry, Cipullo said.

“We do have extra patrols out there,” he said. “We have unmarked patrols out there.”

The police department has also been conducting “field interviews,” which requires officers on the later shifts to stop everyone coming in and out of the village to interview them. The officer then logs the discussion to the intel section of Nassau County, according to Cipullo. This information is available across every police department in the county.

“Believe me, it is not just prone to Garden City – it is the whole county,” he said.

Cipullo said that the department needs the residents’ help and this issue is currently their number one priority.

“We need them to tell us if they see something,” he said. “We need them to tell us if they hear something and don’t be afraid to call 911 and report it. Whatever it is, it may seem like nothing to a resident at the time, but to us it may mean something or we may be able to connect something.”

Trustee Nick Episcopia said that residents have been calling the trustees and asking if the burglars are getting past houses armed with alarm systems.

Cipullo said that “99 percent of the people” have an alarm that happened to not be activated at the time of the burglary. He reminded residents that alarms themselves don’t deter burglars; rather, they scare them off before they are able to “clean the house out.” 

“If they want to get in, they are going to get in,” he continued. “The idea of the alarm is to cut the time short that they are in the house.”

He said that some residents now even have their own surveillance camera, which does help the police department in working on these cases. Surveillance footage has yielded some similarities between incidents, as well, Cipullo added.

Additionally, Cipullo stated that the department currently has four DNA cases they are developing.

“However, that DNA is only good if you can match it to somebody,” he said. “If it is in the system, hopefully it will come back.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, residents voiced their apprehension with the board allowing solicitations in the village due to the recent burglaries. One resident pointed out that the village has solicitation times posted on its website, which is widely accessible.

Another resident said people canvas the area to look for things to pick up curbside.

"I think we need to protect the residents and citizens of this community a little better," the resident added.