The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m., June 12, at the Bainbridge Center, 3093 Ocean Avenue.
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, at the 61st Precinct stationhouse (2575 Coney Island Avenue).
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m. today at the Homecrest Presbyterian Church (1413 Avenue T).
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
Sheepshead Bay honored the Auxiliary Police Officers of the 61st Precinct this past Wednesday evening for their hard work and dedication after Superstorm Sandy.
The auxiliary force of the 61st Precinct, the city’s largest, is an all-volunteer force who’ve come together to assist local NYPD operations by performing uniformed patrols. After Sandy, auxiliary units were deployed to hard-hit areas, including Manhattan Beach and Gerritsen Beach.
The officers received plaques, certificates, and standing ovations from community leaders and locals at Wednesday night’s 61st Precinct Community Council meeting. Neighbors joined together to celebrate the communal effort to get Sheepshead Bay back on its feet after October’s disastrous hurricane.
“Because of them, we felt assured our lives were coming back to normal,” said one local.
Officers responded graciously.
“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give,” said one of auxiliary’s recipients.
Congratulations to the following officers:
A/LT Joseph Bognar
A/LT Yassir Sadik
A/SGT Jonathan Legarreta
A/SGT John Ramnauth
A/SGT Ray Santiago
APO Victor Arazi
APO Thomas Brown
APO Steven Diaz
APO Richard Farnum
APO Grigory Grigoryants
APO Lior Levin
APO Samuel Modovan
APO Vitaliy Molnar
APO Hector Oquendo
APO Alfredo Perez
APO Aleksandr Toyb
If you’re interested in becoming an Auxiliary Police Officer, you can apply online.
The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m., March 13, at the Bainbridge Center, 3093 Ocean Avenue.
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Sephardic Community Center (1901 Ocean Parkway).
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
Home burglaries and traffic incidents spiked in November due to Superstorm Sandy, but, overall, things are getting back to normal within the 61st Precinct’s command, Captain John Chell told members of the 61st Precinct Community Council last night.
Chell kicked off the meeting by again thanking the community for the tremendous outpouring of support from neighbors in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, saying that their efforts bolstered the police department’s effectiveness in the first few trying days after the flood water receded.
“This is our team right here. Community, elected officials, precinct council, myself,” Chell said.
But while the storm spurred on neighborliness, it also encouraged criminals. Chell noted that there was a spate in apartment burglaries in November, wherein perps were breaking in to apartments through the fire escape. Most of the incidents, he said, were confined to the southern stretch of the command, where Sheepshead Bay meets Manhattan Beach, and all along Emmons Avenue.
But Chell again pointed to his theory that one percent of individuals are responsible for 100 percent of the crime, and noted that after making two arrests for those apartment break-ins, the looting statistics tapered off.
“When you grab the right person doing the right crime and put them in jail, it’s remarkable how you can see the number, if you will, just come down,” he said. “Hopefully it stays that way.”
Traffic accidents, including an unspecified amount in which pedestrians were struck, also surged after the hurricane knocked out power to traffic lights. As service to the lights has been restored, traffic statistics are returning to normal, Chell said.
Aside from the two Sandy-related upticks, Chell noted that car break-ins continue to “plague us,” even remarking that a member of his own family had some items stolen from their vehicle recently.
“We, collectively, I think we’re all guilty. We run to the store, running late to be home, we leave our bag in the car and we make mistakes. And it kind of hurts us,” he said, reminding residents not to leave anything in their car, and to ensure their doors are always locked. The command is also circulating photos internally of known car break-in perps, which they’re hoping to use to catch the thieves in the act.
“For the most part, we have their pictures, we try to follow them and we try to catch them … and we’ve had success with that,” he said.
The 61st Precinct Community Council Meeting will meet at 7:30 p.m., December 12, at the Bainbridge Center, 3093 Ocean Avenue.
The Community Council is comprised of concerned residents and top brass from the 61st Precinct, and offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John M. Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
Captain John Chell, head of the 61st Precinct, gave his first report last night to the 61st Precinct Community Council since Hurricane Sandy tore his patrol area to pieces.
The meeting was solemn and subdued, with only 13 people in attendance – far less than usual. Also tragically absent was the council’s Sergeant-at-Arms, Dr. Cy Schoenfeld, who passed away from heart failure as he attempted to escape his Manhattan Beach home during Hurricane Sandy. Schoenfeld will be fondly remembered by his peers on the council and at the Community Board, his neighbors in Manhattan Beach, and by this reporter.
With such difficult news to bare, alongside the continuing suffering of many in the community who’ve lost friends, loved ones, possessions and property, Captain Chell abandoned the usual report in which he provides crime statistics and discusses emerging trends in the neighborhood, and instead spoke of the many acts of kindness and community he has seen in Sandy’s wake.
“I appreciate all the praise that comes my as the commanding officer and the captain here, but I’m going to reverse it back to you and thank all of you,” Chell said. “It was quite remarkable, from Gerritsen Beach to Manhattan Beach, to the center to everywhere else, how the community all pitched in, and that’s what it’s really all about.”
The visibly exhausted Chell also spoke briefly about his own experience as the storm rolled in.
“In all my years of service I never witnessed what I saw that night, the sense of desperation, the sense of not being able to help everyone who needed help,” he said. “We did the best we could.”
Chell did touch on the neighborhood’s crime, specifically the opportunists who emerged after the floodwater receded, knocking on doors and trying to take advantage of victims. He reminded neighbors to be diligent, and request identification before letting anyone in your home or giving them information, and to also use common sense to avoid cons and price gouging.
In response to the storm, the precinct received approximately 100 extra officers to help patrol the neighborhood. Chell noted that the reinforcements will remain on the ground for the foreseeable future.
He also said that the city is not yet towing any abandoned cars or cars destroyed by the storm that remain curbside, though some have been “corrected” to allow traffic to pass. He said they are waiting for insurance companies to catch up on their backlog so NYPD-contracted tow trucks don’t confuse vehicles that will be towed by insurance companies with those that have been legitimately abandoned.
The 61st Precinct Community Council will meet tomorrow for the first time since Hurricane Sandy struck two weeks ago. The meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Bainbridge Center, 3093 Ocean Avenue between Voorhies Avenue and Shore Parkway.
The Community Council offers neighbors an opportunity to ask questions and express concerns about crime and safety issues in the area. If you have questions, concerns or compliments to share about police response in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, this is the time to do it. The monthly meetings are attended by Captain John Chell, the commanding officer of the precinct, who will present a report on incidents and trends in the neighborhood, and speak face-to-face with neighbors about specific concerns.
For further information, or if you have questions or comments concerning Community Affairs, call (718) 627-6847.
