Cops Give Rundown In Woodside
Officers at the 108th Precinct have begun to crack down on hazardous driving, a captain from there told memebers of the United Forties Civic Association at its monthly meeting, Thursday, May 9, at St. Teresa Church in Woodside.
Capt. Richard Hellman, executive officer of the 108th Precinct said overall crime is down 10 percent in the precinct, compared to the same 28-day period last year. He also answered several questions from the group on traffic safety and hazardous driving, and informed UFCA the precinct is in the enforcement stage of implementing the Mayor’s Vision Zero initiative.
“The new vision zero is in effect,” he said. “We’re concentrating on hazardous driving summonses (in te 08).”
Hellman said the Police Department, through Vision Zero is targeting enforcement against signal violations, improper turns, failure to yield to pedestrians, talking on the phone or texting while driving and speeding as hazardous driving violations.
The 108 has also increased traffic stops for all lesser traffic violations as well, shown in the moving violations numbers reported for March, with a reported 1,019 offenses. For the month, there were 180 summonses for disobeying street signs, 121 for using cell phones and 127 for improper turns while driving, police officials reported.
The 108th Precinct is responsible for the neighborhoods of Woodside, Sunnyside and Long Island City.
Though enforcement has increased, according to Hellman, Liz Taylor, an UFCA member asked the Capt. why there weren’t more redlight cameras along stretches of Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside and Woodside, and observed she doesn’t often see motorists stopped for violations by police officers.
“There are speeders being caught,” Hellman said, in reply, and added, “I’m all for this camera program.”
Community Board 2 Chairperson, Joe Conley attended last Thursday’s meeting and related that allocations for red-light cameras are controlled by the state, not the city.
“They just increased the allocation of cameras,” Conley said in reply to the speculation that speeding drivers aren’t being deterred or pulled over and traffic enforcement for lesser violations like blocking the crosswalk at an intersection aren’t being enforced in the area.
“I got one for blocking the box,” Conley said.
Hellman read aloud the accident prone locations in the precinct, intersections where the 108 has received reports of traffic accidents and related injuries in the precinct’s confines in the last 28-day period.
At the intersection of Queens Boulevard and Van Dam Street, there were 14 accident injuries and at Borden Avenue and Van Dam Street, there were eight in the 28-day period, Hellman reported.
Other accident prone locations included; Queens Boulevard and Thomson Avenue, Borden Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue, 48th Avenue and 30th Place and Queens Boulevard and 39th Street. .
“Those are my accident prone locations,” Hellman said.
Hellman was asked at the meeting if Traffic Enforcement Agents can stop vehicles for hazardous driving and give out summonses, not just for parking violations.
Some agents, depending on their rank can give out moving violations for trucks, and the NYPD does operate a truck enforcement unit, but they are not allowed to give summonses for speeding, red light violations, or stop cars.
“No, cause they are not armed,” Hellman said in response.
Hellman is recently returned to the 108, and was promoted to his current rank in 2010 at the precinct. He worked the four years in-between at the NYPD office of the chief of transportation.
“I am newly assigned, but not new to the 108,” he said. “Here I am, full circle, where I started,” he added.
Grand larcenies continue to plague the precinct, Hellman also told the group, specifically “Green Dot” Money Card scams.
There are several varieties of this scam, but all generated from the same premise: a person calls on the phone, supposedly in an official capacity from a governmental agency like the IRS, or from a utility company and demands a payment immediately through a money card, with the threat included of cut-off services, or higher tax penalties if none is made.
Scammers have called and said “(the) IRS fees will quadruple if they don’t pay by a certain hour,” Hellman said .
There have also been reports of residents receiving calls from purported police officials, informing family members that a loved one has been in an accident, arrested or in some other form of need and that a payment must be received, according to the Capt.
“The grand larcenies, they are hitting with the scams,” Hellman said. The IRS and police varieties tend to target new immigrants, according to Hellman.
“(The perpetrators) they are very convincing,” said Hellman. “They’re so convincing, they don’t even call their relatives. Be cognizant of these phone calls,” he advised.
Identification theft when residents are using their ATM cards has also become an issue in the precinct. Perpetrators can scan your card at the ATM and make a duplicate, Hellman said.
“There’s a rash at the TD Banks,” he said. “We think that it’s more prevalent in more banks,” he added, but TD Bank requires customers to file a police complaint to get their money back.
“Right now, all we know for sure is it’s at the TD Banks,” he said.
“Every precinct is getting hit with these kind of scams,” he said.
The United Forties Civic Association meets on the second Thursday of each month, excluding July and August. Meetings are located in the basement of the rectory of St. Teresa’s Church in Woodside, located at 45th St. and 50th Avenue. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m.
