By Sadef Ali Kully
Southeast Queens residents showed up in the hundreds at the first NYPD Queens South community crime forum Monday at the High School of Law Enforcement and Public Safety in Jamaica.
NYPD Queens South Chief David Barrere and Community Affairs Chief Joanne Jaffe hosted the event in light of the new NYPD action plan to educate residents about crime prevention, new training for officers, new technology for the force, youth gangs in the area, social media awareness and youth programs.
Barrere described the NYPD’s new One City: Safe and Fair Everywhere plan, which was officially announced last week after the City Council included an estimated 1,300 additional police officers in the city’s final 2016 budget.
The broad plan’s new initiatives focus on five key areas: tactics, technology, training, terrorism and trust.
Key features of the plan include dividing a precinct into a few fully staffed sectors and the establishment of Neighborhood Coordinating Officers in each sector to identify and manage community concerns.
According to police officials, the plan will not be implemented immeditaely, although it has been a pilot program since March in four precincts, including the 100th and 101st Precincts in the Rockaways.
“The new plan sets a new level of expectations,” Barrere said. “This is really going to change the way we do business in the NYPD.”
Barrere said the police force has been mostly numbers driven based on the weekly crime statistics and the new plan would shift that focus to putting more officers on the ground so those important relationships with residents and community leaders can be built.
The forum addressed a number of topics, including a presentation on new retraining of 20,000 police officers starting next week and the progress of body camera technology. Officers from gang units and youth programs informed residents about clues to look for on social media and on the youths’ clothing for signs of gang affiliation as well as NYPD programs that give young people different opportunties. Police also cautioned residents to be wary of ATM fraud and electronics theft.
Police officials from each of the precincts in the southern part of Queens were represented to answer questions for residents from their respective neighborhoods, including officials from NYPD Housing and School Safety units.
Questions were answered after the presentations were over and they varied from residents from South Ozone Park residents, who wanted to know what to do about the noise from parties, to recent crimes that took place within a specific neighborhood. Police officials diligently took notes about each issue.
The first question was from Earl Roberts, president of the 113th Precinct Community Council, who asked about multiple shootings since January and requested that more cameras be installed in the neighborhood. The 113th deputy inspector, Frederick Grover, responded to Roberts questions and said that the precinct would be receiving additional officers for the summer “All Out Program,” an initiative started last year, which would address those issues and concerns.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
