NYPD Muzzles Community Cops in Sunset Park, South Slope and Windsor Terrace

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — The New York City Police Department (NYPD) has officially declined to let Patch interview the community police officers patrolling Windsor Terrace, South Slope and Sunset Park — even as department heads publicly praise the new "community policing" model under which the cops are working.

In recent months, outgoing NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton has expanded the model to precincts throughout the city, including many in Brooklyn.

Here's how it works: Each NYPD precinct is divided into four quadrants. Two Neighborhood Coordination Officers, or NCOs, are then assigned to spend nearly all their time in each quadrant.

The NCOs hold their own community meetings and hand out department-issued cell phone numbers and email addresses to locals. All along, the NYPD has stressed that residents can reach out to these community cops anytime with criticisms, questions and tips.

Bratton's new model has been heralded by Mayor Bill de Blasio and incoming NYPD head James O'Neill as a critical way for the department to improve police-community relations while gaining access to deeper neighborhood intelligence — which, in turn, helps cops anticipate and respond to local crime.

At a press conference last week, O'Neill announced that the community policing model would be instated be in more than half the NYPD's precincts by October.

The officials have credited the model for helping produce record-low crime levels and arrests in NYC so far this year.

But at least one precinct in southwest Brooklyn isn't mirroring the trend.

Police statistics show crime has risen significantly in the 72nd Precinct — encompassing Windsor Terrace, South Slope, Green-Wood and Sunset Park — in 2016.

Through the end of July, major crimes — specifically, murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, grand larceny and auto theft — were collectively up 14 percent in the precinct compared to the same time period last year.

A geographic breakdown of individual crime reports shows the worrying uptick is concentrated mostly in Sunset Park.

Hoping to get some answers from local police, Patch originally requested an interview with Capt. Emmanuel Gonzalez, who heads the 72nd, on July 12. At that time, an NYPD spokesperson working in the department's press office said: "He is not available."

The NYPD did not respond to multiple followup requests over the following weeks.

Then, in August, community affairs officers with the 72nd Precinct provided the email addresses of the eight NCOs working within the precinct. Patch contacted each of these officers to request an introductory interview — so that, we wrote, "people could see a picture of you, learn about you, and have your contact information on hand."

In one reply received, an officer politely explained that she could set up an interview without going through the NYPD's press office, but only if the conversation focused on her as an individual and not on NYPD policy.

A second officer said via email that he "would love to sit down and talk with you." However, he said, "that request has to go through" the NYPD press.

So, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, we sent a request to the NYPD to set up interviews with Sunset Park's NCOs. In our request, we made it clear that Patch "wouldn't be asking them about police policy," and would instead "just be aiming to introduce them to the neighborhood."

As was the case when we asked to interview Gonzalez, an NYPD spokesperson wrote back: "No one is available at this time."

During a followup phone call, a police spokeswoman again denied our request for an interview. She gave no reason. Another email asking if this policy also applied to NCOs outside of the 72nd Precinct was not returned.

If the NYPD has indeed decided not to allow community cops to speak to the press as a blanket policy, it remains unclear why.

By definition, the NCOs are in place to increase police communication and transparency with the public. And to their credit, those in the 72nd Precinct appear to be doing so. In late July, NCOs Wilfredo Montes and Danny McGrath, who are assigned to the Windsor Terrace quadrant of the 72nd Precinct, conducted a public meeting in which they engaged in a frank and constructive dialogue with locals, focused on policing strategies and policing over the past month.

Another community meeting in the 72nd Precinct, this time led by NCOs Carmela Andersen and Philip Buonora — who patrol Sunset Park — is scheduled for August 24.

But the question remains: Why won't NYPD headquarters allow a local news outlet to interview these officers?

Below is a map of the four NCO quadrants in place in the 72nd, courtesy of the precinct (click to zoom).

And here is the contact information Patch has gathered so far on the precinct's eight NCOs:

Sector A

• Wilfredo Montes: 917-912-0960, wilfredo.montes@nypd.org
• Danny McGrath: 917-853-2601, daniel.mcgrath@nypd.org

Sector B

• Gary Bonavita, gary.bonavita@nypd.org
• Brian Cassidy, brian.cassidy@nypd.org

Sector C

• Carmela Andersen, 929-375-2344, carmela.andersen@nypd.org
• Philip Buonora, 929-371-7705, philip.buonora@nypd.org

Sector D

• Richard Fuentes, richard.fuentes@nypd.org
• Sue Liu, sue.liu@nypd.org

Correction: A previous version of this article misreported the title of NCO officers. They are Neighborhood Coordination Officers, not Neighborhood Community Officers.

Lead photo by Giacomo Barbaro/Flickr