When the cops aren’t enough
Mill Basin residents revive plan for privately funded security patrol
BY JESSICA PARKS
Citing an uptick in crime,
hundreds of Mill Basin families
are pledging their support
to a proposed private security
patrol for the southern Brooklyn
peninsula — and they feel
so strongly about the idea that
they’re planning to cover the
cost themselves.
“The program is needed
because over the past fi ve or
six years there has been a dramatic
uptick in vehicle breakins
and drug dealing on many,
many blocks in our community
and we want this to stop,”
said Bradley Reisman, lead organizer
of the newly-formed
group My Mill Basin.
Reisman and a small group
of neighbors resurrected the
idea for a security patrol —
which Mill Basin residents
have previously called for —
on Sunday and, just two days
later, a whopping 300 families
had committed to paying the
estimated dues required to
fund the effort.
COURIER L 14 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
“Our group was started
48 hours ago,” Reisman said
on June 9. “We as a community
realize that if we want
our neighborhood to return to
the peaceful existence, which
we realize how much we treasured,
then we need to do
this ourselves and not rely on
someone else.”
Organizers allege a spike in
crime over the last fi ve to six
years and claim a private patrol
would be able to pay more individualized
attention to the Mill
Basin peninsula than the 63rd
Precinct has the ability to.
“The police can’t be everywhere
and we don’t expect
them to be,” Reisman said.
“They have their hands full
and it is simply impossible
for them to keep their marked
and NYPD vehicles staffed in
our neighborhood just for the
sake of observing.”
Overall, petit larcenies
in Brooklyn’s 63rd Precinct
— which patrols the peninsula,
as well as Marine Park,
Bergen Beach, Flatlands and
Georgetown — are down, according
to city crime stats, but
residents stand by that crime
in Mill Basin is on the rise and
Reisman suspects that, with
added security in Mill Basin,
cops will have more success
in nabbing the neighborhood’s
carjackers, who are often long
gone by the time an offi cer gets
to the scene.
“Naturally, when someone
is observed trying to gain access
to a vehicle or residence,
the police are notifi ed but in
most cases, if not all, the perpetrator
has long since disappeared
before the offi cers show
up,” Reisman said. “Because of
this, we would like our neighborhood
to have a quicker response,
a more neighborhooddedicated
safety layer.”
Reisman aims to attract
1,200 Mill Basin families before
moving forward with the
program. At the target level of
membership, he estimates the
service would cost each family
close to $500 a year to cover
the approximate $750,000 annual
cost of three patrol cars.
The group has even enlisted
the support of local religious
establishments, according to
Reisman, but neighborhood
offi cials are not as optimistic
that the plan will pan out.
“The Mill Island, Bergen
Beach and Georgetown Civic
Associations had very successful
security patrol many
years ago at a fraction of the
cost per family,” said Dorothy
Turano, district manager of
Community Board 18.
The patrols, she said, fi zzled
out after locals lost enthusiasm
and began falling behind
on dues.
Area Councilman Alan Maisel
expressed doubt that many
families would agree to additional
costs during a pandemic.
“Times are especially diffi -
cult for a lot of people having
who don’t see income coming
in,” Maisel said, “so I am not
too sure how many are going
to actually subscribe to this.”
Turano is also skeptical of
the group’s infancy, and called
the politically charged fl yer
fl oating around “questionable.”
“The credibility of the unsigned
“MY MILL BASIN”
fl yer (who are they?) is questionable
when the fl yer states
that an endorsement was received
from Highway Patrol 2
and the President of the 63rd
Precinct Community Council,”
she wrote in an email, “and
the swipe that was made at the
‘local’ State Senator without
naming all of our elected offi -
cials gives the suggestion of a
political connotation.”
The fl yer, which lays out
the logistics of the proposal,
takes a jab at the peninsula’s
politicians — including State
Senator Roxanne Persaud,
specifi cally — for not working
towards lowering the presumed
spike in crime.
Persaud’s offi ce did not respond
to a request for comment.
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