Second Safest City Blog

Two Acura Integras and one Audi A4 went missing from the Palisades Center mall between 2:30pm and 9pm yesterday. One of the Integras belonged to a Yonkers resident, the other Integra and the Audi belonged to residents of Nanuet. The Audi was recovered in Newark this morning. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to call Clarkstown Police at 845-639-5800.

The problem is that we don’t have an undercover stolen car unit driving around with a computerized, camera equipped automatic number plate recognition system, constantly running license plates looking for stolen cars.

Wait, we do have one of those.

Interestingly, unlike other unmarked units that carry around undercover or plain clothes officers, this special stolen car unit is said to always be manned by a uniformed officer despite its complete lack of markings. Hopefully this makes these officers easy to distinguish as real police as opposed to impersonators interested in hijacking FedEx trucks with fake badges.

A couple from New York City was arrested after they were found to have stolen $3,500 worth of merchandise from Woodbury Commons and the Palisades Center mall.

Crimes happen on a daily basis at the Palisades Center, no matter how small.  Ever been in the stairwells around and in the parking garage?  You’d think you were in the bad guy’s underground lair in a Ninja Turtle movie, seeing leaks, rust, burned out and flickering fluorescent lights, and a seemingly endless amount of graffiti and discarded drug bags.

While Clarkstown is claimed to be the second safest city, this statistic would seem to ignore the fact that we have one of the largest 5 malls, connected to three major state highways — 59, 303, and the Thruway.  The mall, and the community at large, have a connectedness that provides an easy entrance and escape for people going to and from New York City.  The size of the mall provides a great deal of anonymity during busy times.  And despite the fact that the mall has more cameras per square foot than the Big Brother house, the responsiveness of the security guards watching it and handling it are the weakest link.  With 30 million people in the New York metropolitan area, how many bad apples pop up at the mall?

But maybe these criminals wouldn’t have shoplifted in the first place if Mayor Darden was on patrol at the mall with his police lights like last week. Mayor Darden may have just pulled these people over and then took their parking spot, causing them to get frustrated and leave, preventing them from ever reaching the stores they stole from.

According to the Rockland Urinal News, crime takes no holiday vacation, not even in the Second Safest City.

Clarkstown Police are on the lookout for criminals this holiday season. According to Clarkstown Police Detective Fred Parent, who works with the mall stores on security and crime issues, “There are organized [criminal] groups coming to the mall.”

Even Mayor Darden from Spring Valley got in on the action and tried to help fight crime at the mall … passing traffic with police lights to keep people safe during the holidays.