By Stephen Witt
One walks a beat every day and the other is a Polish immigrant fulfilling his dream job of being one of New York City’s finest. Last week, Officers Giuseppe Giuca and Patrick Olewinski shared the distinction of being honored as the 70th Precinct’s “Cops of the Month” for December in separate incidents. For Giuca, whose beat goes from Foster Avenue to Cortelyou Road and from Coney Island Avenue to Bedford Avenue, the award came after making six busts of several adolescent kids wreaking havoc on and around Westminster Road, according to Inspector Tom Harris, the precinct’s commanding officer. “These kids were starting fires. They were throwing rocks from the roof at people walking by. They knocked down a bees’ nest and the bees flooded the neighborhood,” said Harris. “They were really terrorizing Westminster Road and the surrounding blocks. They started a fire in the schoolyard which almost caught the school on fire,” he added. Harris said that people in the neighborhood were constantly complaining and each time they made a complaint, Giuca was able to arrest the youths. Although these kids were young, 12 and 13, even their parents were having trouble controlling them and thanks to Giuca the kids right now are in a reform school in Tennessee for at least a year, Harris said. “So it may seem like a little problem, but it’s all about addressing quality of life and addressing citizen complaints and for that he [Giuca] is being honored as the a Cop of the Month,” said Harris. Giuca grew up and still lives in Brooklyn. He is a three-year veteran and this is his first “Cop of the Month” citation. The secret to being a good beat cop is having a rapport with the people in the neighborhood, said Giuca. “That’s where your best information comes from and that’s where most of the complaints come from. I take care of those complaints and I’m granted a thank-you and that’s good enough,” he said. Olewinski earned his honors when he was out on routine patrol at about 2:20 p.m., December 18 and responded to a radio run of an armed robbery in progress at a store on Coney Island Avenue. Harris said that upon arrival at the scene, the officer received a description of four bad guys with ski masks in a gold jeep Cherokee over the radio. “Pat spotted the vehicle with the perps inside right away and he tried to stop them and they took off, going through lights and stop signs and he was able to get them to a point where they could go no further so they bailed out of the car,” said Harris. Harris said Olewinski led the pursuit and along with responding officers was able to make the collars and recover a loaded revolver. For that he is being honored as a Cop of the Month, Harris said. Olewinski came from Poland nine years ago at 19 as a student, but after graduating from college and becoming a programmer, he quit to join the NYPD two years ago. “I always wanted to become a New York City cop,” said Olewinski. “It’s the only job where when you wake up you want to go to work.”
