The Citizens’ Police…
By Bob Harris
Bill Buzzone, a member of the West Cunningham Park Civic Association and a resident of Fresh Meadows attended the Citizens Police academy two years ago and is now active in the Citizens’ Police Academy Alumni Association Inc.
The Citizens’ Police Academy was created several years ago to foster understanding of and participation with the New York Police Department. The logo on the bottom of the Alumna Association stationery is “Understanding Through Knowledge.” The Community Affairs Officers of each precinct encourage people to attend the Citizens’ Police Academy classes held several times during the year.
The classes meet at the regular NYPD Police Academy. Participants meet at the local precinct, the 107th Precinct in the case of Fresh Meadows, and are taken by bus to the classes. Participants do some of the actual things the police recruits do, so people can understand what the police have been taught and the situations they face on patrol.
Buzzone said he participated in role-playing of the situations police officers must face daily, particularly handling domestic violence. He learned why a car-stop can be one of the most dangerous things a police officer can face because the driver might have a gun in the car.
Our neighbor participated in firearms simulations; in real life an officer has to make a split-second decision whether or not to shoot. In another class the citizens rode along with a patrol car for several hours. Then there were classes about the law and all the rules an officer must follow.
Buzzone is vice president of the Queens South (our area) Alumni Association. He coordinates transportation at meetings and works with the Queens South Command on community matters. The alumni group takes trips to such places as Rikers Island, the NYPD facilities at Floyd Bennett Field, and listens to guest speakers at their monthly meetings.
The purpose of all this is to increase citizen participation with the NYPD, exchange ideas about which police activities work and don’t work, and strengthen links between the NYPD and the community.
Call your local precinct if you want to participate in the Citizens' Police Academy. The Community Affairs officers at the 107th Precinct are Detective Lou Mango and P.O. Amie Aprea. The direct phone number is 969-5973.
GOOD NEWS OF THE WEEK
It seems that the Board of Education is thinking o frying to lure out-of-town teachers to New York City by supplying them with temporary housing. A new person to New York City has enough problems just getting certified, let alone finding a place to live. The Board wants to spend about $200,000 to start this incentive. I had told of the proposal in California to eliminate taxes for teachers. I don’t think it was ever done there because people just said that if the salaries were high enough the teachers would stay in teaching. While temporary apartments sound like a good idea, paying a living wage is a better idea.
BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK
It seems that sometimes judges just don’t do enough to protect average law-biding citizens. In Suffolk County a county judge let a five-time DWI offender off with only a requirement that he attend an outpatient alcohol- and drug-treatment program. The offender had his driver’s license suspended more than a hundred times. The Suffolk D.A.'s Office wanted the man put in jail. In Guatemala the people just took things into their own hands. After people had apprehended a rapist and a judge set him free, about a hundred people in Guatemala City hacked the judge to death with machetes.
