Mar. 17, 2023 By Elijah Hamilton
The 104th Precinct’s commanding officer told Juniper Park Civic Association (JPCA) members Thursday night that the command was working hard to battle not only crime, but also various quality-of-life complaints across Ridgewood, Glendale, Maspeth and Middle Village.
In fact, the 104th Precinct tallied the most 311 calls of any NYPD command in 2022, Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman told the crowd attending the JPCA’s March 16 meeting at Middle Village’s Our Lady of Hope School. Some 11,000 summonses were issued as a result of those calls to 311.
“All our efforts are about improving the neighborhood,” Coleman said. “Parking conditions are a major concern within the precinct, so we put a lot of effort, and the cops work hard in this area.”
Coleman says the 104th also issued the most summons through 311 calls in the entire department.
While emphasizing quality-of-life issues, Coleman noted that the 104th Precinct has also been proactive in battling gun crime — taking eight guns off the streets and and executing four search warrants for ghost guns so far this year, resulting in 19 arrests.
“One, it’s good to get them off the streets,” Coleman said. “It goes to show there are a lot more of them on the streets.”
Coleman also revealed that there had been six felony assaults over the past month in Middle Village — and precinct officers were able to make an arrest in each case.
The deputy inspector added that there have been nine grand larceny cases thus far in 2023, down from 15 during the same time period last year. Meanwhile, grand larceny auto (car thefts) cases are up from 2022; Coleman said the precinct is working to do more car stops to combat thefts.
“This remains one of our main priorities,” Coleman said. “I noticed when we are doing this we often finds that this car, this bike, was stolen, so we catch people riding these thing.”
Coleman stated that he was proud of the work that his cops have done in the community so far in 2023, and is hopeful their efforts will yield an overall drop in crime — and a safer area — this year.
“We’re gonna increase quality-of-life conditions. We’re gonna lower crime in 2023,” Coleman said. “The cops are out there working hard for the community.”