UPDATE: A special meeting of the 72nd Precinct Community Council will be held on Tuesday, November 26th, at 7:30 p.m. Location: the Marian Center in the basement of Immaculate Heart of Mary Rectory, 2805 Fort Hamilton Parkway, between E. 4th and E. 5th streets, in Windsor Terrace.
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The Commanding Officer of the 72nd Precinct got an earful of complaints from incensed Windsor Terrace residents at tonight's monthly meeting of the 72nd Precinct Community Council.
People who have lived in Windsor Terrace for ten, twenty, and thirty years asserted that the situation is the worst it's been since they moved here.
The air was filled with reports of
- group assaults,
- groups of people armed with guns and/or knives,
- verbal threats of physical violence,
- house break-ins,
- car break-ins,
- people climbing on top of garages to get access to private backyards,
- young teenagers smoking pot in the presence of younger children in parks,
- crimes by the Fort Hamilton Parkway/E. 5th Street F and G subway station due to the absence of a clerk inside and low lighting outside, and
- package theft.
Residents, particularly those living in the southwestern portion of Windsor Terrace--the part closer to Kensington and west of the Prospect Expressway--are alarmed. They're experiencing fear for their own safety, but they're especially concerned about the safety of their children of various ages.
Deputy Inspector Emmanuel Gonzalez shared that when he became commanding officer of the 72nd Precinct in March 2016, 110 officers were assigned to it. Today, it has 163 officers. In response to complaints about the lack of officers patrolling the streets--especially side streets--he said he plans to look into assigning more officers to patrols.
He also wants to get the lighting improved in dimly-lit areas and increase the number of clandestine surveillance cameras.
A resident suggested forming a neighborhood watch, since the one that the Albemarle Neighborhood Association operated ended several years ago. He asked if the precinct would give the community advice on how to set it up and operate it, and Inspector Gonzalez agreed to do that.
The Inspector said that he wasn't aware of a number of the issues reported tonight, and he promised to look into them. But rather than wait until the Community Council's regularly scheduled meeting next month, he'll report back to the community at a special meeting two weeks from now in the same location. The date of that meeting will be announced.