By Jyoti Thottam
The newly appointed captain of the 108th Precinct plans a major initiative to crack down on prostitution in Queens Plaza.
Capt. Michael Bryan, an 18-year veteran of the New York Police Department, was appointed to the post Jan. 10 after a stint as second in command of the 113th Precinct in South Jamaica. Bryan said clearing Queens Plaza of prostitutes and johns, a constant complaint of community groups in the area, will be the primary goal of his work in the precinct.
“We're not going to accept the status quo,” Bryan said in an interview this week. “That's going to be the main focus for the precinct. We're going to be putting a lot of resources into it.”
Queens Plaza straddles the line dividing the 108th and 114th precincts in Long Island City, and Bryan said the two precincts will be cooperating in the prostitution crackdown. Capt. James O'Brien, Bryan's predecessor in the 108th, now sits at the helm of the 114th Precinct.
“We'll be using all of our tactics, plus some new ones,” Bryan said.
The 108th Precinct includes Sunnyside, Woodside and Hunters Point.
The new strategies include blocking off some of the side streets in and around Queens Plaza after midnight to push the johns who circle the area onto the main streets. The two precincts will also ask the Queens District Attorney's Office to impose jail time rather than just fines on those convicted of soliciting.
Bryan acknowledged that a crackdown in Queens Plaza might simply move the prostitutes into another area, but he said they would also try break up some of the operators of the prostitution rings by encouraging prostitutes to give them information on their pimps.
“They're the ones who are running the operation,” Bryan said. “We have to get the pimps, and it's not easy. How do we get the intelligence information: that's where the vice squad and the gang unit come in.”
Bryan, a resident of Long Island who has also worked in narcotics, in plainclothes units and in training rookie cops, said he hopes to have an impact on the ongoing problems in the 108th Precinct.
Livery cab drivers, a strong presence throughout the precinct, are often criticized by civic groups for violating parking and traffic regulations, but they are also frequent victims of robberies and burglaries. Bryan said he would try to step up parking enforcement, especially near the Woodside rail station.
“They're very aggressive in their driving,” he said. “We try to address it as often as we can.”
Bryan also plans to reach out to the drivers with crime prevention tips.
“It's a dangerous job,” Bryan said. “I'll have one of the crime prevention officers speak to the drivers at the base. We have to reach them directly.”
With so many multi-story apartment buildings in Sunnyside and Woodside, Bryan said property crime is a major issue for the precinct.
The precinct saw a 5.9 percent decline in crime overall for 1999 compared with 1998, but robbery and grand larceny bucked the trend. Reported incidents of grand larceny rose 5 percent to 636 in 1999, compared with 605 a year earlier. Robberies were up 2.1 percent to 474 for the year, up from 464 in 1998.
Bryan said he would also personally visit the dozens of bars in the area to remind owners that they may be responsible for crimes committed on the premises.
The new commander also plans more community outreach to the large immigrant population in the precinct, many of whom are non-English speakers from countries where the police are instruments of repression.
“We have to reach out to all the different groups,” he said.
