Nine New Officers To Join 114th Pct.
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Nine new police officers join the 114th Precinct July 1. Inspector Brian McCarthy, commanding officer of the 114th Precinct, made the announcement at the June meeting of the precinct community council with Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and NYPD Assistant Chief Diana Pizzuti looking on.

"I got really good news today," said McCarthy. Last year, the 114th went from January to January without any new officers, he said. "Nine new police officers going into summer is quite a score. I'm really happy about that."

The rookie officers will be assigned to street patrol and will also participate in the Community Partnership program. "They will go into stores to say hello," McCarthy said. The program, with the support of NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, is geared to have new officers reach out to the community in an effort "to get a better handle on the neighborhood", McCarthy said.

At last month's council meeting, Council President Ann Bruno said the number of officers at the 114th had dipped below 200. If the number of officers cited then is still current, the nine new officers will give the precinct a total of 189.

"Ann continues to do a great job as the leader of your precinct community council," Brown said in speaking of the importance of maintaining the partnership between his office, NYPD and the community. "We've had such great results." Brown also praised McCarthy and Pizzuti.

Pizzuti, who took over as borough commander of Patrol Borough Queens North in March, also spoke of the police- community relationship. Nothing the good working relationship in the precinct, Pizzuti said, "I know you're very active, very involved, but I want you to try and get other people involved. That's my challenge to you."

McCarthy said crime year to date, is down 8 percent in the 114th. "We're doing very well, it's a tribute to the men and women of the precinct."

Two crime categories, grand larceny and felony assault, continue to be problems. Year to date, grand larcenies are up almost 10 percent while felony assaults are up by almost 15 percent.

Stabbings continue to push up the number of felony assaults, McCarthy said. "Basically, [stabbings] doubled so far this year," he said. A total of seven men have been reported stabbed outside Club Fashion, 32-16 Steinway St., in June. Four were stabbed on June 20 at 3 a.m. while three more men were reported stabbed around the same time of day on June 10.

Arrests for illegal knife possession jumped from 89 arrests in 2005 to 199 in 2006. "We have 130 arrests [for knives] so far this year (2007)," McCarthy said.

Cop-of-the-Month honors for May were awarded to 114th Officers Peter Mikulus, Michael Allocca and Gene Otton.

Mikulus was cited for his arrest of an offender with 40 previous arrests. Observing the perpetrator attempting to steal a car at 51st Street and Northern Boulevard, Mikulus recognized the suspect as a known criminal, followed him and arrested him when he tried to break into the car.

Allocca responded to a domestic violence call on May 26. Following procedure, Allocca was able to recover a loaded firearm from the scene. "Obviously, [Allocca] prevented a serious future incident from happening," McCarthy said.

Otton, on patrol at 31st Street under the "el" train on May 9, observed a teenager throwing objects into the middle of the street. Arresting the individual for disorderly conduct, Otton found in the suspect's backpack a computer with markings identifying it as belonging to the city Department of Education. After obtaining a search warrant, he further found a record of the individual's graffiti stored in the computer, as well as graffiti "tags" belonging to others. Police then made additional arrests, with more expected.