As of Friday, Dec. 8, Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman, officially bid farewell to the 104th Precinct as he begins his new assignment as commanding officer of the 109th Precinct in Flushing.
In an email sent to the public on Thursday, Dec. 7, Coleman announced his reassignment and shared his thanks to the community for the opportunity to serve the neighborhoods of Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale.
“My assignment to the 104th Precinct has been an absolutely amazing experience and I will always remember my time here as one of my favorite assignments with the NYPD,” Coleman said in the email. “A large part of that is because of all the great people here in the 104th Precinct, both the members of the 104th precinct and all of you out there in the communities of the 104!”
Coleman shared some highlights and notable work of the precinct since the start of his time at the Ridgewood police station.
Since Coleman first took over the 104th in 2022, the precinct as a whole experienced an increase in arrests (13%), traffic violation summonses (32%), and criminal court summonses (56%). OATH summonses were also increased by 372% last year, Coleman shared.
Before 2022 ended, Coleman set out on a mission to address the exponentially high number of 311 complaints and quality of life concerns in the confines of the 104th Precinct.
With enforcement on illegally parked vehicles, modified cars with loud speakers, and the influx of reckless ATV, motorbike, moped and scooter riders, Coleman acknowledged an increase in confiscations (333%) as well as increases in motorbike-related arrests and summons by 161% and 27%.
In 2023, the 104th Precinct also increased motorbikes/ATVs/mopeds/dirt bikes confiscations by 35% as of Dec. 3, and reported motorbike-related arrests and summons increases of 52% and 84%, according to Coleman.
Additionally, there was a 44% increase in criminal court summonses, a 47% increase in OATH summonses, and a 36% increase in illegal firearm recoveries this year, Coleman added.
Although the major crime index for the 104th Precinct is up (1.5%), there were also decreases in major crime categories including felony assaults (6%) misdemeanor assaults (9%) petit larceny (12%) shoplifting (22%) burglaries (27%) and shooting incidents (44%).
One category that has been consistently troublesome in the confines of the 104th Precinct — and throughout the — involved grand larceny auto crimes.
Before his departure, Coleman implemented several strategies to combat quality-of-life issues and other crime-related problem areas. In October, Coleman announced the start of a pilot program that assigned traffic enforcement agents to respond to 311 calls for illegal parking — in an exclusive with QNS.
According to Coleman, over 500 vehicles have been towed so far this year thanks to monthly towing operations. Illegally parked and abandoned vehicles, as well as other illegal vehicles such as those with fraudulent paper plates, were targeted in the precinct’s towing operations.
The 104th Precinct also confiscated several modified cars responsible for noise complaints at all hours of the night, throughout the early to late summer months.
In its efforts to conduct more community outreach, the 104th Precinct was transformed into a outdoor theater, handed out backpacks for children before the start of the school year and continued it’s annual Halloween haunted house for the second year in a row.
A replacement for Coleman has yet to be announced, but candidates are being considered for the new roll.
