Metro

Crime is soaring at Kennedy Airport

It’s been a great year so far for criminals at Kennedy Airport — they’re doing more business than ever and rarely getting caught, The Post has learned.

Larcenies are up nearly 30 percent from the first half of 2010 — and the arrest rate is a pathetic 9 percent. The 299 complaints filed this year have led to only 28 arrests.

Included in the figures are thefts from baggage carousels, swiped property left unattended, and thefts by baggage handlers and TSA employees. Not included are picked pockets, thefts from cars in airport lots and shoplifting. The most frequently stolen items are laptops and iPads.

And the problem may be more serious than even the statistics show.

Port Authority Police bosses, a source said, pressure cops to downgrade the value of stolen property so thefts can be filed as petit rather than grand larcenies, one of seven crimes that get reported to the FBI.

“The bosses are constantly telling us to downgrade grand larcenies to petit larcenies when a stolen item is more than a year old,” the insider said. “They want us to take into account depreciation. It’s not enough for us to be cops, they want us to be accountants, too.”

Despite that, one possible reason for the spike is more honest reporting.

Last July, The Post disclosed that PAPD supervisors manipulated figures by pressuring cops to record larcenies as “lost property” cases.

Some 776 “lost property” reports were filed in the first half of 2010. Yet, there were only 518 “lost property” cases filed during the first half of 2011.

The PA said it asked airlines to install more cameras and post more guards where thefts have been reported.