‘We had no choice’: Ozone Park civilian watch
group halts patrols amid coronavirus crisis
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.20 COM | MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2020
After visiting 1,647
supermarkets, officers
gave three verbal warnings.
They also visited
5,559 bars, restaurants
and clubs and saw 4,111
were closed, according
to Shea. There was one
summons in the Bronx
for failure to comply and
two arrests in Queens
for unlicensed bottle
clubs.
Since the city has
been under new guidelines
for daily life, the
Ozone Park community
— which had seen an
uptick in crime — has
been “quiet” in terms of
crime, according to Espostio.
But while there
has been a decrease in
crime, children have
been seen congregating
at local parks.
New York state and
the city have not yet issued
shelter-in-place orders
that have been seen
in California and other
countries including
Italy, but have enacted
PAUSE measures which
started Sunday, March
22, at 8 p.m.
While PAUSE compliance
is not the same as a
lockdown or a shelter-inplace
order, according
to Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
it does highly restrict
which businesses can
be open and what people
can do while out of their
homes. Only essential
personnel are allowed
with other jobs being
required to work from
home or shut down if
it’s not possible to work
from home.
COPCP has been in
discussion with Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s Office to
receive clearance to be
on the streets, but as of
Monday, the mayor’s office
has told the group
to abide by the PAUSE
measures and that if the
office needed help, they
would reach out.
The civilian watch
group received “a couple”
of calls last weekend
that resulted in the
patrol being dispatched
to help and has said that
residents in need of food
and supplies can still
call for aid.
“If we get calls obviously
we’re going to send
somebody out,” said Esposito.
“We’re not going to
keep people without food.”
Meanwhile, NYPD
Auxiliary units are also
grounded, according to
DCPI.
“At the heart and
soul of every volunteer
is the desire to help,”
the NYPD’s Auxiliary
program said in a
tweet. “Please remain
safe & healthy in the
event that we require
your help in the near
future.”
Ozone Park Resident
Block Association meetings
are not currently
being held in person,
but Esposito said that
the group will decide in
April if they will hold
virtual meetings.
“These are trying
times, things are changing
minute by minute,
and we are all trying to
get through this the best
we can,” said Esposito.
“We ask that you do
not panic, do not overthink
this and just follow
the guidelines that
our elected officials and
the NYPD are setting
forth.”
BY BENJAMIN MANDILE
The Cityline Ozone
Park Civilian Patrol
(COPCP) has stopped
its routine patrols due
to the ongoing Coronavirus
(COVID-19) after
talks with Assemblyman
Mike Miller (DWoodhaven)
and the
group’s lawyer.
The civilian watch
group, which is not
considered “essential
personnel” under the
guidelines released by
Gov. Andrew Coumo’s
Office, conducted its last
routine patrol Sunday,
March 22.
“We had no choice,
’cause they’re not considered
essential personnel,”
said Sam Espostio,
first vice president of
COPCP.
But this does not
mean that there are not
people on patrol.
The NYPD has begun
a new “series of patrols
in connection with monitoring
locations and
educating members of
the public on safe social
distancing,” according
to Police Commissioner
Dermot Shea.
During the patrols,
officers stop at public areas
to remind individuals
to be aware of their
distance from others.
Sam Esposito, president of the Ozone Park Residents
Block Association. QNS fi le photo by Dean Moses
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