By Adam Kramer
All the new captain of the 105th Precinct, Michael Bryan, ever wanted was to be a police officer and after 20 years on the job he does not see his time at the Police Department ending soon.
Bryan, 41, who joined the force right out of college, went to the 105th after a two-year stint in the 108th Precinct and replaced retired Deputy Inspector Glen Kotowski as commanding officer. He took over the precinct about two months ago on Dec. 6.
“I enjoy what I am doing, it is what I am,” said Bryan, an avid Mets fan. “I like the challenges. It is not easy and there is a lot of responsibility, but I get satisfaction confronting a situation and coming to a successful solution.”
Even though it will take time to learn the command, get to know his officers and familiarize himself with the personality of the community, he said he has started to reach out to the many community groups in the precinct’s coverage area to find out the needs they want addressed.
The 105th Precinct, which covers 354 miles of roads and highways, stretches from Glen Oaks to Rosedale and from Queens Village to St. Albans. It also covers Laurelton, Cambria Heights, Bellerose, Floral Park, New Hyde Park and Springfield Gardens. The precinct is one of the largest in terms of coverage area in the city.
The move from the 108th Precinct, which includes Long Island City, Woodside and Sunnyside, did not come as a shock to Bryan even though he said “things were going well” and there was a large drop in crime in the western Queens precinct.
On average commanding officers spend about two to 2 1/2 years in a precinct. Bryan said he looks at the transfer as a promotion because the 105th is larger in both area and population than the 108th Precinct.
The move “kind of invigorates you with new challenges,” said the married father of two boys
Some of Bryan’s goals are keeping crime on a downward trend; lowering the murder rate, which tripled to 18 in 2001; cracking down on quality-of-life crimes; and promoting community policing.
The murder rate in the 105th Precinct is worrisome to community members, and Bryan wants to reverse the trend.
Bryan said the 18 murders in the area were high and attributed some of that number to the fact that two bodies were left in the 105th Precinct last year after the people were killed somewhere else in the borough. He also said two others were killed in 2000, but they were not declared homicide victims until last year.
Domestic violence, which was the cause of the last two murders in 2001 in which husbands stabbed their wives, are difficult to predict, he said. The 105th Precinct’s domestic officers track offenders and have probably prevented some murders, Bryan said. In the two murders at the end of last year there was no record of domestic violence in either case.
Monitoring quality-of-life crimes will also help to reduce street crimes and random killings, he said. “Quality-of-life issues have a positive impact on crime reduction,” Bryan said.
He noted that some quality-of-life crimes — traffic violations, double parking and noise — are not necessarily criminal acts.
The precinct’s response time to crimes also helped to lower the overall crime rate in the precinct by 7.5 percent last year.
“Response time to a crime is six minutes, which I think is fantastic and faster than some of the smaller precincts,” he said “I give all of the credit to the officers on patrol.”
In recent years the 105th Precinct’s response time had been as long as 13 minutes, which had disturbed the community and elected officials.
Bryan said he hopes to continue the drop in crime by trying to have officers out on a beat as much as possible.
“Right now I am evaluating how much time the cops are spending on a beat and how to get the maximum out of the beat officer,” he said. “I will do all that I can to keep them in the communities. But the reality is I have to have officers in cars and some times officers get pulled into other areas.”
He pointed out that beat officers are visible in the streets and interact with the community. But the precinct is short-handed so Bryan has a tough time getting officers onto a beat.
“I will do the best I can,” he said, “with the resources I have.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
