The Manhattan Times

More beat cops hoofing it in the 34th Police Precinct

by Daniel P. Bader

The 34th Police Precinct has received, at least temporarily, more officers to patrol the streets on foot. The officers, supplemented by members of the Police Auxiliary, have been deployed in specific areas of the precinct, said 34th Precinct Commander Andrew Capul.

“As the Christmas and holiday season goes on, we’ll increase our foot patrols,” he said at 34th Police Precinct Community Council meeting on Wed., Nov. 18.

The extra officers are from the Borough Impact Response Team, which has been dispatched to Northern Manhattan to patrol in areas where crime statistics have dictated they’re needed, he said.

In total, crime has seen an 11-percent rise in the last 28 days, Capul told the crowd at the YM&YWHA on Nagle Avenue, in part because of 15 cars stolen from the neighborhood.

“Which is a pretty high number” for the precinct, Capul said.

Identity theft and pick-pocketing is on the rise as well. Recent complaints have come from clothing stores, particularly children’s stores, and grocery stores where purses have been plundered.

Grand larceny statistics have risen, he said, in part from children stealing cell phones – often times from each other.

Capul warned that there is a van in the neighborhood which has been caught on video, pulling up to vehicles and breaking into them. A bait car is out there, loaded with surveillance equipment to catch would-be car thieves, Capul said, but cautioned people to not leave anything valuable in the car.

“That person is in and out of your car in one-and-a-half minutes,” he said.

In other police matters, two people involved in a shooting on Sherman Avenue and W. 204th Street earlier this month were arrested, he said.

“We had two police officers on the block when the shooting occurred. Within a block and a half we had two people in custody and a firearm recovered and were able to close the case,” he said.

When police haven’t been right on the scene, he said, this year his detectives have been very successful finding fingerprints and DNA evidence to apprehend 25 suspects involved in burglary, assaults and car break-ins.

Making the matches, he said, is “not as quick as you think it is. Television seems to expedite things,” but crime labs have been effective.

A focus for the precinct, he said, is to respond better to 311 calls about noise, far and away the biggest complaint in the precinct.

According to CompStat, the publically available statistics about the 34th Precinct, in the 28 days prior to Nov. 15 there was one murder in the precinct, a stabbing of a security guard at La Casa Del Mofongo on St. Nicholas Avenue. There was one rape, down from two during the same period a year ago, 15 robberies, 15 felony assaults, up from 12 a year ago, 17 burglaries, 35 grand larcenies a 20-percent increase over last year for the period, and 15 stolen vehicles – two more than last year.