Cops Eye Sex Sales, A.D.A. Talks DNA
Investigating crimes and quality-of-life problems-and prosecuting the offenders-were hot topics at a joint meeting of the Citizens for a Better Ridgewood (CBR) and the 104th Precinct Community Council on Monday night, Feb. 27, at St. Aloysius Church.
Billed as a safety forum co-sponsored by City Council Member Diana Reyna, the session featured Capt. Michael Cody, commander of the 104th Precinct, who updated residents about ongoing efforts to eradicate prostitution on the Brooklyn/ Queens border in Ridgewood and other crimes in the area. Supervising Assistant District Attorney Frederica Jeffries, representing Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, was also on hand to discuss the use of DNA evidence in prosecution and various crime victim assistance programs.
At the start of the meeting, Reyna credited local police and prosecutors for having “tremendous results” in reducing prostitution, crime and quality of-life nuisances on both sides of the Brooklyn/Queens border, which were brought to their attention by area residents at previous public meetings.
“The effect of a collaborative effort between local residents and law enforcement helped to addressed the prostitution issue,” she said. “We want to be able to continue to do that work. … I know we’ve been able to stabilize a lot of issues.”
Stopping local criminals
Regarding sex sales in the Ridgewood area, Cody stated that the command has conducted a host of undercover operations in which officers posing as prostitutes attempt to catch potential customers (“johns”) who travel to the area looking for a good time during late night and early morning hours.
Over the first two months of 2012, he reported that 27 suspects had been arrested-and four vehicles were seized-in three separate stings in the vicinity of Cypress Avenue and Starr Street. The captain noted that the most recent bust took place last Friday night, Feb. 24, in which nine individuals were arrested for attempting to patronize a prostitute.
As for overall crime, the precinct is experiencing a slight increase in major felonies over the 28-day period which concluded on Sunday, Feb. 26. Year-to-date, Cody stated, the command has seen decreases in felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and auto thefts.
Robberies have jumped in recent weeks, the captain noted, with 15 holdups reported to the precinct during the month of February. The warm weather experienced over the course of the month had a lot to do with the spike, he observed, as more people- including criminals-seemingly chose to stay indoors during February 2011, when the weather was cold and snowy.
Cody stated that officers from the precinct have made a number of “notable arrests” in the Ridgewood area, including the suspects involved in a robbery at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Palmetto Street on Feb. 4 and three individuals who held up a teenager at the corner of Cypress Avenue and Summerfield Street on Feb. 13.
Ten felony assaults and 10 burglaries were also recorded in the Ridgewood area so far in 2012, the captain stated. Most of the assaults were domestic in nature and members of the precinct “closed out” three of the cases with arrests.
Similarly, police arrested individuals for three burglary cases in Ridgewood, including the Jan. 31 break-in of an apartment on Madison Street and the burglary of a garage on Linden Street.
Hoping to boost crime fighting efforts even further, Cody announced that four NYPD surveillance cameras have been installed at the corner of Cypress Avenue and Palmetto Street. He noted that the security devices were initially requested last year by Deputy Inspector Keith Green, the precinct’s former commander.
Cody added that he will meet with Council Members Reyna and Elizabeth Crowley to request funding for additional security cameras in Ridgewood and other neighborhoods in the 104th Precinct’s confines.
“They’re monitored from a remote location,” he said. “It’s almost like putting another officer out on the street.”
Solving crimes through DNA
Jeffries announced that District Attorney Brown is in favor of a bill being considered by the state legislature which would expand the collection of genetic material from individuals arrested for crimes across New York State, stating that DNA samples have proven to be an effective tool to help prosecutors try and convict suspects.
When a person is arrested for a felony or a certain type of misdemeanor, Jeffries stated, prosecutors collect a DNA sample from them through a cheek swab for submission to the state’s DNA databank overseen by the Division of Criminal Justice Services. The DNA is then compared with samples collected from criminals or from crime scenes to determine; if a match is found, she noted, prosecutors can use that to bring additional charges against a suspect.
“We’re finding that the low-level criminals, when we swabbed them, were getting really hard-hitting [evidence] which established that they were involved in more serious crimes,” she said.
At the end of 2011, Jeffries noted, of the 329 DNA matches of suspects arrested for criminal trespassing, 30 of them were linked to homicides, 30 were linked to robberies, 109 were linked to sexual assaults and 119 were linked to burglaries.
Of the 928 matches for suspects charged with petit larceny, 48 were linked to homicides, 110 were linked to robberies, 220 were linked to sexual assaults and 391 were linked to burglaries, she added.
In addition to resolving unsolved crimes, the Queens District Attorney’s office is leading the entire city in convicting those involved in domestic violence, Jeffries noted. The office attained 22 percent of the total number of violent felony convictions citywide in 2011, including having the second-highest conviction rate for criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
For crime victims, the office also offers a variety of programs in place to help them recover, including a Child Advocacy Center to help juveniles who are victims of a sex crime and the Justice Resource Center, which provides counseling to domestic violence victims.
Feedback
A local church member asked Cody and Jeffries about efforts to help reach out to undocumented residents who are afraid to come forward and report crimes for fear of deportation.
Cody stressed that, by law, the Police Department is not permitted to ask about a person’s residency status, adding that there are bilingual officers assigned to the command to help any individual in need of assistance.
Jeffries added that staff members from the Queens District Attorney’s office are available to visit groups and conduct crime prevention workshops to educate residents about their rights and services available to them.
After an attendee inquired about noise complaints around the command, Cody stated that the precinct has been working with Patrol Borough Queens North to conduct enforcement operations at nightclubs which residents report to the 311 hotline as being noisy. The most problematic locations, he pointed out, are invited to a meeting with the patrol to review good business practices and advise them of regulations.
Representatives of Hush lounge in Maspeth appealed to Cody to help resolve ongoing issues at the club. One of the club’s proprietors claimed that police are constantly called to the location based on complaints made by a residential neighbor.
“I’m pressed against the wall,” the Hush representative stated. “It looks like no matter what I do, I keep getting tickets.”
Captain Cody stated that he would talk with the management of the business and local residents in an effort to clear up any problems and “build a good relationship with everybody” in the area.
A local resident claimed that gang members have been loitering along Myrtle Avenue near a McDonald’s restaurant. The captain noted that the command has targeted groups of loiterers along the shopping strip and have made arrests; business owners in the area, he added, have also been cooperative with police efforts.
Democratic District Leader Thomas Bornemann noted that the Ridgewood Democratic Club, located on Putnam Avenue at Stier Place, has been hit repeatedly by graffiti vandals since Christmas 2011. He inquired about the response to the vandalism as well as efforts to clean it up.
Margaret O’Kane, CBR secretary and a member of the Greater Ridgewood Restoration Corporation (GRRC), noted that the latter group would add the location to the list of graffiti-tarnished spots around the community which will be cleaned “as soon as the weather warms up.” Since the GRRC suspended its graffiti cleanup operations last fall, she noted that “there has been a real surge in Ridgewood graffiti.”
Cody stated that the 104th Precinct has made numerous arrests of graffiti vandals in the Ridgewood area recently. He noted that the command’s graffiti coordinator, P.O. Justin Dambinskas, keeps a database of photographs of tags around the area in an effort to prosecute vandals who are caught.
P.O. Thomas Bell advised residents who notice that their properties have been hit by graffiti to take a picture of the vandalism and forward it to the precinct. Once police have received the picture, he stated, residents should either clean or paint over the tags.
“We can still charge a person if we can identify their tag” with a picture, he said. “Just e-mailing the precinct can still get a report taken” for vandalism.
The next Citizens for a Better Ridgewood meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday night, Mar. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the lower level of St. Aloysius Church, located at 382 Onderdonk Ave.
For more information on the 104th Precinct Community Council, call the precinct’s Community Affairs Unit at 1-718-386-2431.
