COP104 Meeting on November 19th
There were quite a few new residents attending this meeting, held at Maspeth Town Hall. Newly elected City Council member Elizabeth Crowley spoke to the audience for a few moments before having to depart for a scheduled meeting elsewhere. Senator-Elect Joe Addabbo was out of town, but his representative explained his absence, promising that Joe will regularly attend the COP104 meetings in the future.

Precinct 104 Commander Inspector Green fielded questions regarding traffic, trucks, school buses, noise complaints, and a Middle Village area with a severe drug problem.

Tony Nunziato spoke about: the homeless encampment by LIE and the need to seal up the fence. Tony also suggested that Highway Patrol travel on both sides of the LIE looking out for speeders who routinely drive the area with no regard for pedestrians or other drivers. Limos without livery cab licenses are another long-standing problem for the residents. A number of stretch limos, with no TLC plates are regularly using parking spots day and nights, forcing the residents of the block to find parking several blocks from their homes.

Bob Holden, President of the Juniper Park Civic Association raised the issue of the too few (44) speeding tickets issued so far this year. All of us who live in Middle Village witness speeding all over, any time of day. Certainly there could easily be at least 44 tickets for speeding each week.

Another regular abuse is the commercial vehicle parking overnight on residential streets. Trucks, large and small violate the truck parking regulations daily (and nightly).

Residents of the entire precinct would be happy to see more enforcement of speeding and truck parking violations. Wouldn’t the revenue from added enforcement help reduce all the taxes Bloomberg plans for us? Or, help to pay for additional officers?

HAS THERE BEEN ANY NOTICEABLE CRIME INCREASE SO FAR?
At a steady but troubling level is the larceny that occurs. Auto theft, theft of items inside autos – left in plain view, an open invitation to thieves, a big item taken from autos is the GPS (Global Positioning System – for directions to the driver’s destination) of growing usefulness and popularity.

Holiday shopping starts now. Please follow all the common sense rules: keep to well-lit areas; don’t show cash; keep your credit card handy and visible to you at all times; avoid carrying so many shopping bags that you are defenseless. Lock your car. Keep your valuables invisible. Don’t attract unwanted attention.

ANY OTHER ADVICE?
Yes. Call 911 for emergencies – fire or police. Your lost kitten is NOT an emergency. Call 311 for situations that need attention from a city agency, including police, but not an emergency response. Uncollected trash would be an example. Loud noise in the neighborhood, graffiti, and cars parked for long periods, and other hazardous but not immediately threatening conditions are some reasons to call 311.

A new feature of the 311 system is that the 311 system will now send you an email to indicate the status of the city’s response to your call.

But, you must identify yourself to obtain this email. There have been no known cases of retribution against 311 callers by the city or by private citizens. Think about it; to the city, most complaints are too trifling to instigate retribution. To the private citizen who violated some regulation that prompted your call, the citizen would not bother to perform retribution. The very worst that could happen is that some neighbor who violated a regulation will stop talking to you. Most of us can handle that.

Read the First Amendment again. You have the right to speak up to the government to redress your grievances. Your call to 311 is exactly that. You are informing the city of a problem (grievance) and asking that your tax dollars be used to redress (solve) that grievance.

Please, when you use 911 or 311, fully identify yourself. Your call will be taken more seriously when you stand up and identify yourself.

I WOULD LIKE TO DO MORE. ANY SUGGESTIONS?
Yes. Attend the COP104 meetings, held on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. The locations for the meetings rotate throughout the Precinct so that all precinct resident have an opportunity at least several times each year to communicate with the Precinct Commander and various officers. All residents are always invited and welcome to attend any and all meetings throughout the year. Look for posters announcing the next meeting and its location. These meetings are useful to learn more about your community, and for you and your neighbors to inform the Deputy Inspector of incidents and problems in your neighborhood.

Are you interested in participating in civilian patrol of the community? Phone GCOP/104COP at 718-497-1500.

HOW CAN I CONTACT DEPUTY INSPECTOR GREEN?
You can e-mail the Deputy Inspector at adm104@gw.nypd.org. For USPS Mail, write the Deputy Inspector at: 64-02 Catalpa Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385-5257.

Do you have questions or comments for Deputy Inspector Green that you want published in the next issue of this column? Just e-mail: POLICEBEAT104@AOL.COM or write this column at: Police Beat 104, C/O Juniper Park Civic Association, P.O. Box 790275, Middle Village, NY 11379. We will keep your identity private if you request. If you request, we will forward your question or comment to Deputy Inspector Green and publish his reply in the next issue.