In May of this year, Captain Scott Shanley replaced outgoing Deputy Inspector Peter Loehle as Commander of the 104th Precinct. Inspector Loehle served us at a very difficult time, during the 9/11 tragedy, and he did an outstanding job particularly with limited manpower. We wish him all the best in his future career with the NYC Police Department. Captain Shanley has big shoes to fill but already he has proven to be a hands-on type commander who leads by example.

When I spoke to him recently and read his impressive resume, you would have to conclude he’s certainly up to the job. Here’s a snapshot of his resume – he is 39 years old and has a Bachelor of Political Science degree from Gettysburg College. He has been with the Department for seventeen years, assigned primarily in Queens. As a Lieutenant he was Commanding Officer of the Queens South Auto Larceny Unit, concentrating on auto investigations. As a Captain, Scott Shanley commanded the 110th and 115th Precincts Impact Zones and was Commanding Officer of the Queens North Burglary Task Force. All these roles indicate that we have a Captain on top of his game. The 104th Command will be a huge challenge for the Captain that is sure to push the boundaries of his very capable talents. He takes over a precinct encompassing 7.5 square miles, much of it surrounded by 18 cemeteries. The geographics of the precinct hampers response time to calls and, because of this, the 104th has one of the slower response times of all the NYC precincts. Like his predecessor, the Captain will have two formidable challenges to deal with, the geographics of the area and an understaffing of police officers. When I spoke to Captain Shanley he told me his police philosophy of taking care of the little things before they become the big problems. He will address the quality of life issues quickly because he feels that, left unattended, these are the breeding grounds for larger, more serious crimes of opportunity. This will give you an idea of how focused he is – one of the first jobs he tackled as soon as he arrived was the illegal scooter problem. He listened to the residents and heard their complaints about the growing menace of very young children riding these illegal scooters in traffic on the streets. Within the first month of his tenure in the 104th, he seized over 25 of the scooters. As of this date about 100 scooters have been confiscated. The scooters are illegal on New York City streets, parents should know better and not buy them in the first place. Because they are still being purchased by irresponsible parents and youngsters under ten years of age are often seen riding them in traffic, there is an effort underway to make it illegal to sell the scooters. Captain Shanley told me that initially he was very impressed with the community involvement he witnessed here in the 104th Pct. To give you a bigger picture of what he said here’s the Captain in his own words: In the short time being here and having attended various civic meetings throughout my Commands, I have been pleasantly surprised to see such a strong sense of community and commitment that I have never seen anywhere else throughout my career. There is such a small town environment and it is something that I was not expecting. The willingness of the community to work with the police to address issues and work toward a solution is a model of how the process should be.

There you have it, a snapshot look at our new Captain, Scott Shanley, and a statement in his own words. We’re glad he is impressed with us and recognizes our passion for our community and we in turn are just as impressed with him and his commitment to his job. We wish Captain Shanley well in the 104th and we all look forward to a productive and cooperative future with him.