14 The QUEE NS Courier • FEBRUARY 18, 2016 for breaking news visit www.qns.com Deputy Inspector Thomas Conforti with some of the new cops set to join the ranks of the 109th Precinct. Whitestone and College Point to receive huge influx of new police officers By Alina Suriel asuriel@qns.com/@alinangelica Northeast Queens is about to get more blue. The 109th Precinct is set to receive a huge influx of officers as part of a new community policing program to increase the number of “beat cops” in Flushing, Whitestone, College Point and the surrounding neighborhoods. The initiative will increase the ranks of officers in the 109th Precinct by about a third, according to Deputy Inspector Thomas Conforti, the precinct’s commander. Many of the new officers will be recent graduates of the police academy. The first wave of 19 new officers has already begun acclimating and a second wave of 15 more cops will be added to the precinct upon their graduation from the academy in March. Some officers will also be reallocated to the 109 from other city precincts. The 109th Precinct is the second-largest in the city, according to Conforti, with a recorded population of 247,000 people and an undocumented population of as many as 200,000 additional residents. Conforti said that residents have often complained to him on how little they see officers “walking the beat” on a daily basis and interacting with the community. The deputy inspector said personnel resources have been shifted across the entire NYPD within the last five years as approximately 5,000 to 6,000 officers retired from the force without being replaced by new hires. This can lead to less police being available for neighborhood interaction on busy days as priority is placed on emergency 911 calls. “It’s a challenge to make sure the police resources that I have are at the right locations,” Conforti said. Whitestone and College Point residents have long called for a police substation in their area so quality-of-life concerns in northern neighborhoods would not be drowned out by the frequency of crime in the dense population of downtown Flushing. Cops who are part of the new neighborhood community officer program will not leave their neighborhood zones to respond to emergencies, but will rather focus on understanding the local dynamics of their assigned area. The new cops were secured following negotiations between Councilman Paul Vallone with One Police Plaza and the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio. The community policing program has been tested in other parts of the city but never before in northern Queens and the deal also includes an influx of new police vehicles, according to Vallone. Vallone said he and other community leaders used the NYPD’s choice of their area for a much-criticized tow pound as political leverage to negotiate for the extra personnel resources. “Enough with bringing things to College Point and not getting anything back, right? You gotta negotiate.” Vallone said. “Politics 101: if you’re going to do something, you gotta give something.” THE COURIER/Photos by Alina Suriel Vallone with the new 109th Precinct cops THE COURIER/Photo by Alina Suriel Officers Richard Danese and Jared Delaney with Whitestone resident Carmine Camenzuli. Supercops at 109th Precinct stopped Whitestone carjackers and suicidal man By Alina Suriel asuriel@qns.com @alinangelica Councilman Paul Vallone and the 109th Precinct honored three police officers on Feb. 10 for their outstanding efforts in resolving a violent carjacking and a suicide attempt in two separate incidents. Officers Richard Danese, Jared Delaney and Evangelos Galatas were named the “Cops of the Month” at the precinct, which covers northeast Queens neighborhoods including Whitestone, College Point and Flushing. Officers Danese and Delaney were recognized for their roles in apprehending a violent pair involved in a January crime rampage that included the theft of two vehicles, two separate car accidents and an assault of an elderly man in Whitestone. Police began searching for the suspects — later identified as Jamel White, 30, and Quiana Hodges, 17 — after they fled a car accident in the 109th Precinct in December. During a preliminary investigation of this incident, it was discovered that the pair were driving a vehicle they had stolen in Brooklyn after beating up its rightful owner. Although a massive search for the couple soon followed, they were able to slip away from officers by stealing another car in a violent assault that left an 84-year-old Whitestone man hospitalized. White and Hodges were apprehended in Brooklyn by Police Officers Danese and Delaney several days later after leading the officers in a car chase that resulted in them crashing into both a parked car and a police vehicle. Their elderly victim, a Willets Point Boulevard resident, has since recovered. Police Officer Evangelos Galatas was also recognized for his role in responding to a burglary that escalated into a suicide attempt in Whitestone shortly after Christmas Day. The drama unfolded after a man violated an order of protection granted to his estranged wife to break into his former residence to steal back his own property, according to Conforti. A neighbor called 911, and the 109th Precinct responded. He refused to leave the residence when police arrived on the scene, instead beginning a standoff with first responders. The situation escalated when the man climbed to the roof of the building during the forced entry of an emergency services unit and threatened to take his own life by jumping if police did not leave. Police negotiators were unable to reason with him as the man only spoke Greek, and Galatas — a street patrol officer with a native grasp of the language — was called in as the only one able to communicate with the individual. According to Conforti, Galatas stood for 4 1/2 hours in freezing rain to convince the man to surrender. Although a crowd of neighbors had gathered around the scene to watch the spectacle created during this time, no one was hurt. Conforti said that Galatas performed extraordinarily well despite not having the specialized psychology training usually used by the NYPD in high-stakes negotiations. “You have a regular officer who was a patrol officer on a daily basis and he gets put into this situation,” Conforti said, “and I can say he stepped up to the plate on this one and he hit a homerun.”
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