Captain encourages community input

Dozens of local residents attended the most recent 106th Precinct Community Council meeting to voice their concerns within the neighborhood.
Held on Wednesday, July 13, Community Council president Frank Dardani commenced the meeting with the Cop of the Month award, given to Detective Nathaniel Tauber.
Tauber was honored for making 25 arrests; his ability to elicit information from suspects about other criminal activities; 21 positive prisoner briefings; and getting 21 search warrants. He recovered three firearms and had eight recoveries of narcotics, according to Captain Thomas Pascale, Commanding Officer of the 106th Precinct.
“[This is] not something that is given to an individual for any one incident that has happened over the course of the month, but is a buildup of a body of work that took place over the entire year,” Pascale said.
Captain Roy Kaplan of Transit District 23 then addressed residents’ concerns about graffiti and the homeless in train stations.
Within the 106th Precinct, “we don’t have very heavy crime stations. At Rockaway Boulevard, quality of life complaints include urinating, smoking in the stations and drinking in the station,” Kaplan said.
The majority of complaints residents made were about increased noise pollution in the area, especially at 125th Street between Rockaway Boulevard and Sutter Avenue; 107th and Rockaway; 115th Street; and 121st Street – all alleged locations of house parties. Other complaints included a neighbor’s refusal to leash his pit bull, sale of alcohol in the garages of the parties and lack of police in Lindenwood on July 4.
Pascale asked the residents to contact 3-1-1 for complaints or 9-1-1 for crimes in progress and to email him directly so that the command may address issues.
“I really can’t believe how many people showed up tonight and we really want to give credit to the community – we can’t do this job without the input from the community,” Pascale said.