By Mark Hallum
Capt. John Hall plans to launch the latest programs while continuing the work of his predecessor as deputy inspector at the 111th Precinct in Bayside.
Hall, a Queens resident, hopes to bring his experience in developing the Neighborhood Policing program at 1 Police Plaza into the mix to tackle burglaries and illegal parking in the communities the 111th serves.
“Burglary is one of my primary concerns — it’s one of the crimes that’s been spiking lately — and also the quality-of-life issues that revolve around parking,” Hall said in an interview.
He explained how he plans keep up the work of Deputy Inspector William McBride, who was rotated out of the precinct — as is routine — to alleviate resident complaints about abandoned cars and those belonging to dealerships along Northern Boulevard by implementing towing operations. McBride was reassigned after three years,
Hall grew up in Pittsburgh and studied at Cornell University before moving to the city in 2004 to join NYPD. He served at two different precincts in the Bronx, where he dealt with parking congestion issues, and at the 5th Precinct in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Hall is no stranger to the 111th Precinct after serving as an executive officer for six months in 2015.
The new deputy inspector’s most recent assignment was in the police commissioner’s office as part of the Neighborhood Policing Strategy Group for four months. He is familiar with the program and is looking forward to the full launch of the program in northeast Queens.
As part of the program, Neighborhood Coordination Officers will oversee sectors within the precinct and two subordinate officers will function as the “eyes on the street,” according to Hall.
Residents will be able to text these officers about neighborhood problems, since the 111th Precinct and others like it cover a large swath of the city.
“One of the advantages is we can break up that area and have officers assigned to each part,” Hall said. “Also, the patrol officers who typically run radio call after radio call, they’re going to have time off patrol to actually interact with the public and deal with the problems that come up… [Patrol officers] are going to be more community facing than they have been previously.”
Hall said he will be welcoming a new community affairs officer to the 111th after Officer Luigi Galano was assigned to Crime Analysis at the precinct.
The new community affairs officer coming to the 111th Precinct will have experience with the Metropolitan Police in London, according to Hall.
“It’s going to be tough to keep up with what [McBride] did. He made two successive years of crime decreases in a place that’s already very low on crime, so it’s going to be interesting just to maintain that,” Hall said.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
