The 24th precinct, on 100th Street.
By Alex Israel
A new kind of neighborhood policing is coming to the 24th precinct, which covers the Upper West Side from 86th Street to 110th.
During its first community council meeting of 2018, the 24th Precinct announced that six officers are training to become Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCOs), as part of Police Commissioner James O’Neill’s larger neighborhood policing plan.
The NYPD began rolling out the initiative to precincts across the city as early as 2015. According to the NYPD website, neighborhood policing aims “to increase police and community connectivity [by] helping New York City residents get to know cops in a brand new way.”
It operates by breaking each precinct into various sectors, and assigning two NCOs to each, to “work the same neighborhoods on the same shifts, increasing their familiarity with the local residents and local problems.” The NYPD defines the NCOs as “liaisons between the police and the community, but also as key crime fighters and problem-solvers in the sector.”
In the 24th Precinct, the program will take into effect on Monday, January 22nd. According to Commanding Officer Captain Seth Lynch, the Precinct will be broken out into the following three sectors:
–Sector A: 86th-110th, Broadway through Riverside Park
–Sector B: 86th-100th, Central Park West through Broadway
–Sector C: 100th-110th, Central Park West through Broadway
CO Lynch expressed his enthusiasm for the program, and excitement to play a role in “returning the human aspect to policing,” by “opening up communications between the community and the police.” As part of the program, NCOs will take a “boots on the ground” approach to engaging with their sectors, introducing themselves to the community at public events, houses of worship, schools, and senior centers. They will also be tasked with hosting their own quarterly community forums, separate from the monthly Community Council meetings.
Once the program has officially kicked off, the 24th Precinct website will be updated to reflect the NCOs’ contacts. They will also receive their own Facebook page to distribute information and engage further with the community.
Recent crime stats for the precinct are posted below:
(Click to enlarge.)
About time! Lots of changes in the area & would be fantastic to have names of cops on the beat . . .
It’s NOT new.It was done back in the 70’s when I was in the 24.If it helps I’m all for it but NEW—no way.Just saying…….
They should be bringing this to lower end of UWS.
We have had violent crimes in the area of the 60’s and 70’s: eg recent assault at 68th and Columbus PO not to
mention street assaults you have written about.
This article covers the 24, which goes river to CPW and 86 to 110 street. The precinct that covers the area of these crime sis the 20.
I’m aware of that. There are no options for starting a new thread specifically asking for police coverage in the 70’s. Thank you.
I think we desperately need police in the lower and upper 70’s. I’m so fed up with seeing police camera footage asking for the public to help identify criminals who are mugging and injuring innocent people. Am I wrong in thinking that having police on the street would deter crime???
You have to have been around as long as I have to know that Community Policing is an update, not a new concept. If memory serves, and it may not, this kind of program dates from the [19]70s in the very same Two-Four precinct — to which I moved in 1977. And which I fictionalized in “The Hundred Percent Squad”, a super-authentic police procedural novel set in the 80s and published in 1990. (This is not a commercial, the novel is out of print – sales benefit the seller, not moi. If you enjoy and I believe you will — my pleasure.) Community Policing isn’t mentioned in the book. NPT often was laughed off by the cops, who said the acronym for Neighborhood Patrol Training really stood for “No Patrol Today.” Corruption fears — an issue forever — helped kill the program: closer connections between officers and community would foster same, said opponents. The classic True crime book about police corruption, “Serpico” by Peter Maas, was published in 1973. Still very nuch in print — and Frank Serpico still is with us. Stalwart true crime writer Maas is not. “Serpico,” the film will be screend this summer during Film Forum’s “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” New York in the 70s fest (July 5-27.) Bravo! But I digress. Previous neighborhood policing programs didn’t have the benefit that this new one has, of the Facebook factor. Let’s hope it makes all the difference to a meaningful NYPD effort.
Sorry for typos! NPT should be Neighborhood POLICE (NOT patrol) Training (right, Jimbo?!)
Soooooooooooooo wrong–NPT stood for Neighborhood Police Team.I should know, I was on “THE TEAM”.
Commentators are correct: this is nothing new! “Beat Patrol Officers,” singly or in pairs, going back to P.C. Teddy Roosevelt! With sectors for each beat officer or police car (radio motor patrol). And restored somewhat by Mayor David D. after most foot patrols were withdrawn and replaced by automobiles. Cops (constables on patrol in the U.K.) see crime, hear about it from street informants or locals, and take action or ignore it as they see fit. So, nu?, what’s new? —Alan Flacks