MAKING STRIDES
SE Queens residents voice public safety concerns at St. Albans town hall with NYPD commissioner
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Southeast Queens community
leaders and residents
packed the The Robert Ross
Johnson Life Center in St.
Albans Thursday night for a
town hall discussion with new
NYPD Commissioner Dermot
Shea, who made his first appearance
in the community
to address public safety issues
and concerns.
City Council members Donovan
Richards, Adrienne Adams,
and Daneek Miller were
joined by Assemblyman Clyde
Vanel, Acting Queens Borough
President Sharon Lee, and the
NYPD Patrol Borough Queens
South at the church, located at
172-17 Linden Blvd.
“We know that the NYPD
is one of our strongest partners
responsible to protect the
community,” Adams said. “We
look forward to continuing a
positive partnership and as
new leadership has come in,
we are looking forward to progression
and not regression.”
Shea, who has been a member
of the NYPD for 29 years,
reiterated the importance of
working together continuing
to strengthen police and community
relationships to combat
quality-of-life issues in the
neighborhood.
“When you talk about
where we are in this city tonight,
I think we are in a very
good place,” Shea said. “There
is a lot going on, but we’re going
to get through it together,
and the right way. We have to
carefully balance, as we have
for the last six years.”
As the floor opened up for
the question and answer segment
of the town hall, residents
didn’t hesitate to voice
their concerns to the commissioner.
According to an audience
member, there have been five
shootings within the past two
weeks on the peninsula. The
spike of violence in the Rockaways
regarding hate crimes
and shootings has prompted
the NYPD’s 100th and 101st
precincts to work diligently
and effectively with the community.
NYPD 101st Precinct Commanding
Officer Eric Robinson
said the borough has been
heavily involved with daily
conference calls with officials
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea speaks at his first town hall meeting in southeast Queens at The Robert Ross Johnson Life Center in
St. Albans. Photo: Carlotta Mohamed/QNS
while policing with precision.
In response to hate crimes
across the city, Shea said, “It’s
time for people to call out what
we see — whether it’s speech
on the internet or people
marching. It comes with a lot
of responsibility, and when
people are professing stuff
that is wrong, we’re safe.”
The youngest resident in
the room, 9-year-old Amaryllis
Greene, cited past events of
pedestrians struck by motorists,
recalling a woman who
was hit by an out-of-control
vehicle on Sutphin Boulevard
and Jamaica Avenue.
“These safety issues and
concerns need to be addressed
as I and children my age of the
future need to be safe,” Greene
said.
Shea noted the importance
of everyone to always be vigilant
in their surroundings,
such as driving safely and
keeping an eye out for pedestrians,
especially children.
“All of the precinct commanders
closely analyze all
of the accidents to make sure
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.20 COM | MARCH 6-MARCH 12, 2020
we are doing everything possible
to make sure our officers
are addressing anyone that is
driving in manners that they
shouldn’t be driving,” Shea
said.
Resident Manny Martinez
stressed the trespassing
of homeless individuals at
the NYCHA South Jamaica
Houses, who he says have been
“sleeping, defecating, urinating,
and engaging in sexual activity
in front of families that
live in the building.”
According to Shea, the
NYPD has been interacting
with the homeless population
and offering services.
“We do a lot of work on a
day-to-day basis in the city.
We’re working with other
city agencies to interact with
homeless people, and to see
them not as criminals because
being homeless is not a crime,
but interacting with them to
take services and concentrating
on locations where the
most complaints come in.”
Meanwhile, Glenn
Greenidge, director of the Sutphin
Boulevard Business Improvement
District, requested
more resources at the 103rd
Precinct to tackle distribution
of drugs nearby businesses on
Sutphin Boulevard and Archer
Avenue.
“We have a McDonald’s that
has been there for 20 years
and has closed down because
of drug activity, and members
of the McDonald’s condoned
drug activity in the store,”
Greenidge said. “We also had
a shop owner who was beat up
in his store.”
While some of the issues
addressed involved criminal
activities of the youth, Queens
South Commanding Officer
Ruben Beltran said the area is
a prime concern for Neighborhood
Coordination Officers
(NCOs). Beltran said they’re
reinventing youth officers
and coordination officers to
receive training, and creating
safe spaces for the youth to
gather, redirecting them from
criminal activities.
In regards to the new bail
reform act, when an audience
member asked, “Is there a direct
correlation between bail
reform and increase in criminal
activity?” Shea said he
believes there is a direct correlation
and that the law can
be changed and fixing inequities.
“We need balance. You have
to remember when you talk
about bail reform, you have to
have the entire conversation
because if there’s 50 people in
this room, you’ll have 50 different
opinions,” Shea said. “I
don’t think this is the time to
have arguments and debates…
this is the time to come together,
figure out what’s going on,
and make it better.”
Throughout the meeting,
the commissioner also answered
questions regarding
petty crimes and installation
of cameras in neighborhoods,
the tenure of precinct commanding
officers, mental illness
crisis intervention training
for police officers, and
bridging the gap between the
Jewish and African American
communities across the city.