Life On the Front Line of N.Y.P.D Brass

There is an office in the 107 Pct. in Fresh Meadows with pictures of White and Black neighbors playing tug of war at a picnic. Pinned to the cork board are definitions of "professionalism" and the importance of first impressions. Behind the desk there is a photo of four-year-old Elizabeth Fox on a P.D. Mounted Patrol horse.
And for every car theft, murder, rape and Police Department story written about South Queens, the New York City Police Commissioner looks to this office.
It is the new office of Assistant Chief Joseph Fox, Patrol Borough Queens South and the picnic pictures are his success story from Crown Heights.
There is another office not unlike it in the 114 Precinct in Astoria, where Assistant Chief Douglas Zeigler answers for the issues and coordinates the efforts of Patrol Borough Queens North. They are the officers on the front lines of command for sixteen precincts protecting the two million people of Queens.
Zeigler took over Patrol Borough North in 1997 after 24 years in uniform for New York City. He began in the City Housing Police Dept. in 1973 and during his career served as both the Housing Police Department Advocate and the Chief of Patrol, as well as the executive officer of Patrol Borough Queens South.
Fox took over as commanding officer for Patrol Borough Queens South on Oct. 8. He may not know Queens yet, but he knows police work, first from his father’s work in the 71 Precinct (Crown Heights) and then from his own 17 years in the Department at every level.
"My job gets better every year," he said. He became a cop because "it looked like fun" he laughed and added "it is. It is all about making a difference . . . when you are able to realize that you made a difference [in someone’s time of need], that you contributed and had an impact on people."
Raised in Brooklyn, Fox’s first assignment was in Brooklyn South’s 70 Precinct. His moved up the chain of command quickly, reaching the rank of captain in 1992 and filling assignments that included commanding officer, office of the Deputy Commissioner of Training, and executive officer of the 71 Precinct.
But it was in 1995 that he was selected as the Commanding Officer of the 71 Precinct, Crown Heights . . . where his father had spent his N.Y.P.D. career as a Patrolman. "I thought I knew about community and diversity," he remembered, but Brooklyn taught him otherwise, and his father made a point of "helping."
"He was telling me how to run a precinct" and enjoyed knowing that his former Precinct was lead by his son. Some of those ideas were good, and some needed updating for the times, but the key to successful policing in Crown Heights was "local level involvement."
"Having as many positive events as possible means having a dialogue. When there are no serious challenges, you build trust" that solves problems when they do arise. Fox is now "encouraging that at the command level."
In 1995 he was promoted to deputy inspector and in 1997 to deputy chief assigned as executive officer, StatCom. Brooklyn North.
Through all these varied assignments, Fox gained new perspectives on the Police Department that he now finds himself utilizing every day. He stressed that the Patrol Borough’s focus must and will be on "continually working at reducing crime." Policing methods in previous administrations were "almost like holding the line mentally, instead of being proactive" in fighting crime. And so, though burglaries and car thefts are on the decrease in South Queens, Fox will continue to push strategies that focus on those crimes previously plaguing his neighborhoods.
He added that he expects his neighborhoods will be feeling the impact of his leadership soon.
"I have noticed that a lot of the time community people talk about a former Commanding Officer, saying ‘whenever we get a good guy they move him.’ Well, it takes six months if you’re really good for people to know it, and if you’re average, it takes a year and a half. So we have to work at getting known quicker. I tell my commanders ‘you want people to talk well about you while your there, not when you’re gone. You can’t wait for it to come to you.
"I have a lot of work to do," Chief Fox smiled as pictures of his daughter Elizabeth and son Joseph, 9, watched over him as his father once did. "I have to do it quickly."