FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 10, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 3
No re-election for Queens DA Brown after 27 years in offi ce
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e borough’s longest-serving chief
prosecutor has decided not to seek
re-election.
Queens District Attorney Richard A.
Brown announced on Wednesday that
he will not seek an eighth term in the
offi ce. He will fi nish out the current
term, which expires at the end of 2019;
he had fi rst been appointed to the post by
then-Governor Mario Cuomo in 1991.
“Aft er almost six decades in public service,
the last 27 years spent as District
Attorney of Queens County, and aft er
careful thought and consideration, I
have made the decision to fi nish out my
current term and not seek re-election,”
Brown said in a Jan. 9 statement. “It has
been an honor and a privilege to have
served the people of Queens County —
the most ethnically diverse county in the
world — for these many years as district
attorney. I am greatly appreciative and
humbled to have had the trust and confi -
dence that they have expressed in me by
electing me to seven full terms in offi ce,
and in the process, making me the longest
serving district attorney in Queens
County history.”
In the ensuing years, Brown elevated
the Queens district attorney’s offi ce to be
“without a shadow of a doubt … the best
prosecutor’s offi ce in this great nation,”
but at age 85 and in failing health, he had
been rumored by court-watchers to step
away for some time.
Prior to his appointment in 1991,
Brown had been a member of the state
judiciary. In November 1977, Brown was
elected a Justice of the Supreme Court
in Queens County and in 1982 we was
designated by Governor Hugh Carey
as an Associate Justice of the Appellate
Division.
Brown thanked his staff for their loyalty
and service and thanked his partners
in law enforcement for contributing
to the city’s historic reduction in
serious crime.
“Apart, however, from our historic
reductions in violent crime and auto
theft to name but a few, I am proud
of our many innovations that have
improved not only our criminal justice
system, but our entire community,”
Brown said. “I am grateful that the
many specialty courts we pioneered —
like having one of the State’s fi rst Drug
Courts, as well as Mental Health Court
and Veterans Court — have enjoyed
enduring success and have been duplicated
around the nation.”
Earlier in the week, Brown had released
his annual year-end crime report for
2018; since taking offi ce, he touted, overall
crime across Queens has fallen 82.5
percent. Crimes in Queens fell by 2.7
percent last year, led by an 11.4 percent
drop in robberies and a 17.2 percent
drop in burglaries.
City Councilman Rory Lancman,
retired Queens Supreme Court Justice
Gregory Lasak and Queens Borough
President Melinda Katz have announced
they will run to replace. Brown and his
wife Rhoda have three children and two
grandchildren.
File photo/THE COURIER
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown at his desk in a 2016 interview
USPS: ‘Cadillac of Mailboxes’ to stop NE Qns. mail theft
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Plans to replace regular blue mailboxes
with high-security collection boxes are
underway in the confi nes of the Baysidebased
111th Precinct.
According to Donna Harris, a spokesperson
for the United States Postal
Service (USPS), the independent government
agency is actively working on providing
residents within the 111th Precinct
with the “Cadillac of Mailboxes.”
Th ese boxes feature a “small slit as
opposed to a larger opening,” said Harris.
According to Th e New Yorker, the slits
on the mailboxes measure “three-eighths
of an inch high” in an attempt to prevent
mailbox fi shing attempts.
Harris said that the replacement and
retrofi tted boxes have already appeared
in neighborhoods like Oakland Gardens
and Little Neck, but would eventually be
coming to all 206 of the precinct’s mailboxes.
She said that there was no specific
timeline for when the mailboxes would
be replaced.
Th e Bayside Hills Civic Association
posted a photo on their Facebook page
showing the installation of one of these
high-security boxes on Springfield
Boulevard off 56th Avenue.
Th e USPS spokesperson added that
the agency has been working in cooperation
with the NYPD to evaluate data that
shows which boxes are targeted most frequently.
She shared that along with data
from the NYPD, the USPS also relies on
information provided by postal employees
and customer reports — “not information
from just one source,” Harris
said.
“We’re doing everything we can to
make sure the mail is safe,” Harris said.
“We want customers to know that we
take this very seriously.”
The 111th Precinct posts regular
updates about mailbox fi shing incidents
on their Twitter account. Th e most
recent incident happened on Dec. 26
at Northern Boulevard and Little Neck
Parkway.
Captain John Hall, commanding
offi cer at the 111th Precinct, posted a
2018 crime recap for the precinct and
mentioned that police and U.S. Postal
Inspector changed the locks on some
boxes and replaced some in the precinct
with the “theft -resistant design.”
Th is deterred fi shers for a few months,
but mailbox fi shing incidents picked up
again during the holidays.
According to Hall, mailbox fi shing falls
under the category of “unattended grand
larcenies” which increased from 70 in
2017 to 124 in 2018.
Both the USPS and police offi cers
advise residents to mail checks and cash
via the post offi ce but share tips for those
who opt to use blue mailboxes. Tips
include using pens with permanent ink
that can’t be “washed” or erased, checking
bank account balances regularly and
report any mailbox tampering to 911.
Harris said that reporting incidents is
important to ensure that the individuals
in question “get off the streets.”
Photo via Facebook.com/BaysideHills
A high-security mailbox is installed in Bayside.
/BaysideHills
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